


What it Takes to Become a Champion

by Redawilo



Series: Main Stuff [7]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, eventually, rated T for strong language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-21 07:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 31,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9538139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redawilo/pseuds/Redawilo
Summary: Many children in the Pokemon world grow up dreaming of being the best trainer. Some of them choose to pursue this dream when they are of age. One such trainer is a young girl named Pink. Join her and her first pokemon Pixy, as well as a handful of other eccentric trainers and a ranger, as she explores the world around her and meets many great (and not-so-great) trainers and pokemon alike.Updates the 11th of every month!





	1. Departure and a First Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> Fanfic titles are not my strong suit. =|
> 
> I know, I know, everyone and their grandmother has an original pokemon trainer or two. And everyone and their grandmother wants to send those characters on a grand adventure. Well guess what? I am part of that "everyone and their grandmother" and this grand adventure has been in my brain for probably 8-10 years. So I'ma write it.
> 
> There's not a lot that happens in this first part, but hey, gotta start somewhere right?
> 
> This series mostly follows game logic/canon, at least as far as generations 1-4 are concerned. Though there might be a few things borrowed from later gens and other canons as I feel necessary.

It was bright and early when the girl left her house. Her dad had just double checked her belongings to make sure she was all ready to go and had given her a hug farewell. She passed by the garbage bin filled to the brim with boxes and wrappings from her birthday party the day before. She was ten years old now, which meant she was old enough to try her hand at the Kanto Pokemon League. Her dad and the professor of the region had been excited to hear when she announced the year before that she wanted to try challenging the gym leaders, and this year she was finally being released into the world to do so. She already had her pokemon, and one of the gifts she had received from the professor was her very own Pokedex. Her father had teased him about him just wanting her to do grunt work for him, but he insisted the reason for it was that it would come in handy to have a database of information at her fingertips. Half-jokingly, she assured him she would make as many new notes about the pokemon she encountered as she could.

With a deep breath to fill her lungs with the cool morning air, she took her first solo steps out of Pallet Town.

She had been through the length of Route 1 plenty of times. It was only a two or three hour walk to Viridian City, after all, and she and her dad had made the trip there hundreds of times in her life. Frequently she had to wonder why her hometown and the city had never converged on each other, but over time she had come to accept that that was just how things were.

The girl knew the pokemon of Route 1 well. The only things that inhabited the narrow path were pidgey and rattata. She had seen them so often that she had no interest whatsoever in catching them to use in her party. Still, she tracked down one of each and beat them into submission before chucking a pokeball in order to capture them. She sent them immediately to the professor, giggling quietly to herself at the exasperated look he was sure to have upon seeing what common things she had decided to burden him with. Once she had the two recorded as being owned in her Pokedex, she proceeded to battle with any others that approached her on her walk.

These weren’t her first battles, not by a long shot. They were however the first she had ever had without her dad’s watchful eye. It excited her to no end. Her pokemon already out-leveled the wild ones, but she knew that if she ever came across a trainer she would be in trouble. So despite the minimal experience it gained her pokemon, she was certain that it was worth it.

Sure enough by the time she crossed into Viridian City’s limits her pokemon had grown three whole levels. Her first plan of action was of course to get it healed at the Pokemon Center, and after that she figured she would take a quick peek at what Route 22 had to offer. She did just that.

The nurse welcomed her by name, as she and her father always made it a point to visit whenever they arrived and just before leaving as well. Not only that, but the nurse also spoke with her pokemon using its name. After the nurse had handed the pokemon over to her chansey to be taken into the back and healed, she turned to the girl with a smile and a question.

“Already old enough to be out on your own?”

“Yep! As of yesterday! But Papa wouldn’t let me leave until today. He said he wanted me to spend yesterday with my family and to have a good night’s rest before I left.” She said, pouting just a little.

The nurse giggled. “You’ll be grateful for that once the homesickness kicks in.”

“I’m not gonna get homesick!” the girl insisted. “I’ve been waiting for this for a whole year. I’m all ready to go and I was so yesterday, too.”

The chansey returned with the premier ball that contained the girl’s first pokemon. Despite the ball’s name, it was just a special gift her dad had gotten one time for buying ten regular pokeballs. The fact that he had used it to capture the pokemon that his daughter would eventually chose to be her first was just a coincidence. The nurse thanked her pokemon and handed the ball back to the girl.

“If you say so. Take good care of your pokemon, now. Come back any time.”

“I will.” The girl assured her, sticking the ball back onto one of the magnetic clips on her belt.

Her next stop was to spend some of her birthday money at the mart. She already had quite a few pokeballs courtesy of the professor, and her dad had made sure she had a small supply of potions too. What she was after were antidotes in case something on Route 22 was able to cause poison, and for Viridian Forest too, as she was aware of the weedles that made the forest their home. With half a dozen of them in her bag, she wandered the streets heading to the west.

The new pokemon that lived on the path between Viridian City and Victory Road were plentiful and most were ones she did not already have. The girl let out a whoop of joy when the first thing she encountered was a mankey. She had half a mind to keep it on as a party member, but ultimately decided against it for now. She also considered this about the spearow, nidoran male, and nidoran female she also caught there, although she was less interested in using them. After the battle with the nidoran male, she couldn’t help but wonder if her dad would be impressed at her foresight. Its poison point had done its job and her pokemon required one of the antidotes. Eventually her pokemon would be packing special moves and would be able to avoid such things, but right now all it had was pound.

She settled down with it around noon to have lunch. Her dad had packed her food and snacks that should last her until she reached Pewter City, and the thought that she would soon have to buy and cook her own meals caused her to groan. Her cooking skills were decent, but it was her wallet that caused her some concern. She knew pokemon supplies were fairly cheap, but they were going to add up. The girl was all too aware that she would need to find other trainers to battle if she was going to be able to do this. She glanced further down the route, muttering to her pokemon as she did.

“Eleven months from now this place is going to be crawling with trainers making ready to go through Victory Road. I can’t wait to be one of them, but right now I think it’s good that no one like that is around. We’re not ready to fight such high level pokemon, are we Pixy?”

The little pokemon beside her gave a whine of agreement as it shoved a meatball the size of its tiny fist into its mouth whole. The girl giggled at her companion.

“Don’t eat too much.” She poked its belly. “You’ll get even more round!” It puffed up its cheeks at her grumpily. She laughed again and offered it a chesto berry. Its eyes shined with delight and it took it from her, shoving the whole thing into its mouth. “And just like that, I’m forgiven.”

The rest of their lunch was fairly uneventful, and when they were done eating it was back into the premier ball for Pixy. The girl did another once-over of the route to make sure she wasn’t missing anything. She found nothing new and was about to go back to Viridian City when she caught sight of a red haired boy about her age heading her way from the direction of the city.

He was looking down at the ground, but glanced up and locked eyes with her. The girl had never felt her heart beat so rapidly in her life. Judging by the fire in the boy’s orange eyes, he felt similarly. He was a trainer, and this was probably going to be the very first trainer battle for both of them. The girl could feel the wide grin on her face as she rapidly approached the boy.

“You’re a trainer!” she announced, plucking her premier ball from her belt and pointing at him dramatically. “So am I! That means we have to battle!”

The boy stared at her. After a moment he tilted his head to one side. Okay, so maybe there wasn’t any fire in his eyes and they were just orange. Maybe he wasn’t a trainer after all. He glanced at the ball in her hand and a brief look of understanding hit him. He smirked and silently dug his own cherish ball from the bag he carried. He tossed it in the air before throwing it down between them.

To the girl’s surprise, he had an igglybuff. The look she gave him was nothing short of mocking, and he noticeably blushed and turned away from her with a huff.

“Funny you should have something like that, though. Because I’ve got this! Go, Pixy!” she shouted, releasing her pokemon.

Upon seeing the cleffa she had sent out, the boy gasped softly. After the initial wave of shock he grit his teeth and wildly shook his fist at Pixy. Suddenly something clicked in the girl’s mind and she couldn’t help but snicker.

“This is going to be interesting… Pixy, sing it to sleep!”

The igglybuff was faster, and it pounded Pixy before the little cleffa could begin to sing. Despite getting hurt, she drew in a breath before singing sweetly and succeeding in making the opponent fall asleep. The boy clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes, unable to do anything but wait for his pokemon to wake up. Pixy spent the next three turns getting off free pounds before it woke again. By that point his only hope of winning was to use sing as well and pray for the best.

The boy pressed his palms together and laid the side of his head against them, miming sleep. Not at all to the girl’s surprise the igglybuff was once again faster. It sang the best it could, but Pixy didn’t respond at all. Another pound and the poor thing was out for the count. The boy returned it, stamping his foot against the ground in frustration.

She recalled her pokemon and took a few steps closer to him, raising her hands in the process. What she did next took the boy completely by surprise. Very slowly she signed,

“You should probably start teaching your pokemon sign language now so they’ll be able to understand you in the future.”

He blinked a few times, processing the fact that a complete stranger would be able to understand him.

“What do you know?” he asked, signing back to her.

Satisfied that he got the point, the girl spoke up as she replied. “I know that it will be easier in the long run since there’s a bunch of different moves and flailing isn’t going to convey all of them. Are you deaf? I’m afraid I’m not as good at signing as I am at understanding it.”

He shook his head and she lowered her hands again.

“That was cheap!” the boy declared. “Sing is such a bad move!”

The girl laughed and gave a shrug. “I don’t know, it worked out pretty well for me! Fifty-five percent chance of working and my pokemon nailed it!”

He glared at her. “I’ll bet you think you’re really special then, huh? Well guess what, you aren’t! Igglybuff have better attack and defense, I would have won if you hadn’t done that.”

“You still owe me.” The girl stated, smirking as she held out her hand. “Pay up.”

What probably counted as growl came from the boy as he opened a pocket of his bag and brought out his wallet. To the girl’s surprise, the amount he gave her was nothing for a young trainer to sneeze at. She had been expecting less than a hundred coins, but instead five hundred were slapped angrily into the palm of her hand. There wasn’t any official rule about prize money but the general consensus was that a trainer had to pay approximately a tenth of whatever cash they had on hand, which meant the boy had more money than she did when she left her house that morning!

“Wow…” she said without meaning to as she pocketed the money. “Say, what’s your name?”

The boy huffed and looked away from her, although he did give her an answer. “Orange. And my pokemon is Pukurin.”

Again the girl had to laugh. “No way! My name’s Pink, and cleffa’s name is Pixy.” She said happily.

“I don’t care.” Orange replied.

“Really? I think it’s cool! We’re so alike and yet we only just met. Hey, are you going to be taking on the gyms? We should travel together!”

Orange narrowed his eyes at her, scowling. “No! I travel alone. Besides, why would I want to hang out with a noisy girl like you? I’ve better things to do with my time.”

“Noisy!?” Pink shouted angrily. “I haven’t done anything to deserve that!”

“You’re loud. And not just you, everyone is.” Orange replied pointedly. “That’s why I prefer my own company and the company of Pukurin.” After a moment he hesitantly asked, “You say you’re going to be fighting the gym leaders. Where are you headed to first?”

Pink blinked, momentarily taken aback by the sudden question after Orange had seemingly no interest in anything she was doing. “Uh… Pewter City, I guess.”

“Typical…” he replied, looking entirely unsurprised. “Fine then.” He met her eyes again, orange boring into pink. “I’ll go somewhere else. There’s plenty of gyms in Kanto, I don’t need to follow the same path you do. But know this; if we ever meet again it will be _me_ who comes out victorious! Cheap moves or no!”

The girl grinned brightly, her heart racing again at the challenge he had just declared. “In your dreams!”

He rolled his eyes. “We’ll see about that. Now if you don’t mind, I need to revive Pukurin.”

Pink ran a hand through her short brown hair. It was true, she had taken enough of his time as it was and a pokemon like igglybuff needed to be restored quickly if it was ever expected to evolve. She began to make her way back to the city, waving him off as she stepped passed. “Right, right. I won’t come back out here, so you don’t have to worry about our meeting coming so soon.”

She didn’t look back to see if he gave her any response to that.


	2. Through the Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a single trainer battle victory under her belt, Pink takes to the Viridian Forest!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to preemptively apologize for the information barf that is all over this chapter. It is the first time I demonstrate the use of the Pokedex, since Pink will not be using it to check wtf a rattata is.

Pink sat on a fallen log near the entrance to the Viridian Forest. The distance that Route 2 covered between the forest and the city was about as pitifully small as Route 1 was in total, so she had easily covered it in the afternoon. Now the sun was starting to sink in the sky and with the tall trees it was even darker. The girl and Pixy had decided to take a short break, the cleffa chowing down on a few of her favorite berries.

“Since we’re probably going to have to battle our way through the forest, I should probably check out what Bubbles has to offer us.” Pink muttered to herself.

She plucked a pokeball from her waist. Before leaving the city, she double checked the notes she had made for herself over the course of the year she had been getting ready to leave. The gym leader of Pewter City was known for using rock-type pokemon. Pink had considered her options, and had decided to pick up her mankey from the professor. It was that same mankey that she now released from its ball. Almost immediately it looked panicked and glanced around nervously.

“It’s okay, calm down.” Pink told it gently. “You’re not in a battle. I just want to have a look at you.”

Bubbles the mankey stared up at her, clearly worried what that meant. She withdrew her Pokedex from her bag and had it take a quick reading of her new pokemon. She frowned when she looked at the stats.

“Level 5 isn’t bad... Known moves are scratch, low kick, leer, and focus energy. Your best stat is speed but…” she cringed. “Oh, that explains a lot. You’re timid.” She glanced over the device. Pixy had hopped off the log and was offering Bubbles one of her berries. Bubbles sniffed it, but didn’t take it. Pink opened up her bag again and sorted through the berries she had on her. She found a pecha berry and offered it instead. “This will probably be more to your liking.” Pixy turned her nose up at the berry, but Bubbles reached out hesitantly for it, took it, and bit into it. His eyes lit up at the taste and he ate with delight. “Well, having more speed isn’t exactly a bad thing. Especially since Pixy is so slow. But I don’t think it’s very good for a fighting type to have lowered attack. Still, I guess it isn’t the worst.” She scrolled further through the list of information that was displayed on the screen. “Now what is your ability…? Oh! Well that’s handy. Anger point will help out that attack problem, although it obviously isn’t the best. Still, I think you will be far more useful against rock types than Pixy. Well then, please do your best for us, Bubbles!”

The mankey peered up at her and nodded meekly.

With the introductions made and the new teammate befriended a little, Pink decided it was time they get back to making progress. She recalled both pokemon, packed up her belongings, and wandered deeper into the forest. As she walked, she encountered a few wild pokemon as would be expected. She took it as a good chance to get some experience in with Bubbles. The mankey’s semi-high level proved useful and despite him not having the best stats he managed to defeat a handful of opponents before Pink had to heal him. In addition, she added two new pokemon to her captured list: caterpie and weedle, both of which she sent to the professor with no intention of using.

As the afternoon dragged into evening, Pink had to pull out a flashlight. Some trainers would complain that it was cheating to use tools instead of teaching a pokemon something like flash. Pink didn’t really care. Technology was advancing, and the ‘rule’ that trainers had to use the bare minimum and rely on their pokemon was going out the window more and more with every day. If it meant she could traverse the forest after the sun went down and before she was ready to go to bed, she was going to use her flashlight no matter what people said.

Luckily for her, the people she encountered deeper inside the forest were also young and of the same opinion. The bug catchers all carried lanterns or flashlights of their own, and were eager to battle even hours after the sun had set. Pink for her part was just as thrilled to battle other trainers. She used Bubbles as often as she could, but of course against multiple pokemon in a row she had to switch out now and again for Pixy. The cleffa certainly couldn’t dish out or take the same amount of damage, but at the very least she was able to finish off anything Bubbles didn’t have the health for. And of course against weedles and their poison stings, Pixy and her magic guard was the way to go.

As the night went on, Pink found herself getting tired, and not just because it was late. This had been the first time she had been walking for most of the day, and her legs were turning to jelly. A bit reluctantly, she found a quiet place off the beaten path to set up her camp. Being in a forest she was able to make a small fire and she laid out her sleeping bag beside it. Pixy and Bubbles were both let out so the three of them could eat their dinner. Thanks to the day’s experience, the mankey was accustomed to his trainer enough that he didn’t hesitate to take the riceballs she offered. They weren’t sweet or dry, but both pokemon ate without a fuss. Pink meanwhile pulled out her map and checked her progress while she ate.

“Looks like we’ll be able to make it back onto Route 2 before noon.” She told her pokemon. “Which is great, but if I’m honest I might spend a little extra time in here because there’s something I want to catch.”

Bubbles turned a curious look her way. Pixy, having spent a lot of time with their trainer, already knew what she was talking about.

“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely get us to Pewter City tomorrow. We’ll be sleeping in a real bed tomorrow night for sure!”

After eating, Pixy invited Bubbles to cuddle up next to her and go to sleep. Pink couldn’t help but wish she had a way to take a picture of her two little round companions peacefully snoozing on a large pillow she had set out for them. Pink stayed up a short while longer, plotting out their route through the rest of the forest and thinking to herself how best to go about encountering the pokemon she was after. When she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, she crawled into her sleeping bag. She checked the time, finding it to be approaching nine o’ clock. That was the time she normally went to sleep, but being on her feet all day and doing a lot of mental exercise in the heat of the moment in battle had taken its toll on her. Satisfied with the progress of her first day, Pink curled up and fell asleep.

*****

“Okay, good work Bubbles!” the girl shouted, pointing his pokeball at him. “Come back now!” She returned him and sent out Pixy instead. “Okay girl, I need you to nail this for me. Sing that pichu to sleep!”

Without question the cleffa took a deep breath and filled the small space around them with her cute, mellow voice. The pichu that Pink had spent half an hour scouring for near the northern exit of the forest shook off the relaxing voice and instead tried a thundershock on Pixy. She took it like a champ and tried again to render her foe unconscious. It worked the second time and Pink chucked a pokeball at it. Unfortunately even in the pichu’s state it managed to shake its way out the ball. It couldn’t attack, and so Pink just grit her teeth and threw another one. Two seemed to be the lucky number of the day, as this time it worked and the pichu was caught. Pink let out a whoop of joy, picking up Pixy and twirling around with the little pokemon held out at arm’s length.

Still holding Pixy, she picked up the ball and sat down on a rock nearby. The pokemon hopped out of her arms and sat down beside her. She turned the pokeball containing her new friend over in her hands, smiling widely. She honestly hadn’t been expecting to encounter something like it so easily. And on top of that, she had found a baby instead of a pikachu! Elated would be putting it lightly as to how great Pink was feeling that morning.

“Pixy, I need a name for this little boy!” she announced. “What should it be?”

The pokemon titled her head. “Cleffa?”

“Hmm, no, I don’t think ‘Battery’ is a good name.” Pink replied. “Thanks for trying though.”

Pixy shrugged at that. Pink released her new pokemon into her lap and carefully fed him one of Pixy’s precious chesto berries. Slowly he opened his eyes and blinked sleepily up at his trainer.

“Hello there.” Pink said cheerfully. “Sorry to make you go through that, but I really, really wanted you to be my new friend! I just love your kind so much, and you’re so cute!”

The pichu stood up and stretched. He cast her a playful grin and puffed his chest out at her compliment. Pixy hopped up and held out her hand and he shook it happily.

“I need to think of a name for you. Pixy thinks it should be ‘Battery’.”  The pichu blanched at that idea and shook his head. Pixy pouted and Pink giggled. “No, I think I can come up with something more befitting you.” She brought out her Pokedex again. “Now let me see…”

Like before, the Pokedex listed off a lot useful information for the girl. According to it, her new pichu was level 4. That wasn’t ideal, but Pink felt she could train him just fine with a little extra care. He only knew thundershock and charm, another thing that would limit his usefulness for a while. Stats and nature-wise, she liked what he had to offer more than she did Bubbles. It turned out he was sassy, which meant his special defense was buffed in favor of lowering speed. It wasn’t the best thing for a pichu, especially considering it meant two of her pokemon were going to be suffering from slowness, but she liked that his damage-dealing stats were unharmed. Lastly, and unsurprisingly it had static for an ability. She decided that like Bubbles, maybe that would help the pichu out a little with his lowered stat.

“You remind me of someone.” Pink muttered as she tuned back into reality and noticed that her pokemon were chasing each other around on the forest floor. “I think I’m going to call you Junior.”

They both stopped and stared up at her. Pixy frowned, but Junior didn’t seem to mind the name.

“Oh what, you still think ‘Battery’ would have been better?” she asked her cleffa.

“Clef! Cleffa!” she protested.

“No, ‘Charger’ isn’t any better either! If I was going to name my pokemon after their type you’d be ‘Average’ and Bubbles would be ‘Mr. Fister’!”

Junior snorted and tried to suppress his laughter. Pink and Pixy both cast him puzzled expressions, but he just waved them off in a ‘you will understand eventually’ manner. Frowning that apparently something funny had been said but that they didn’t understand it, Pink returned her attention to Pixy.

“Anyway, Junior is Junior, and that’s the end of it.”

Having made that decision, Pink let out Bubbles too. It was an opportunity for him to meet the new party member, as well as for Pink to double check his and Pixy’s levels. The both of them were 12, and Pink decided that was plenty high enough to move on. While she did that, Junior introduced himself to the mankey, and the three of her pokemon chatted a little amongst themselves. Pink got to her feet and called to them that it was time to get going. She left them out of their balls, giving them a chance to keep getting to know one another. At one point just as they stepped back out onto Route 2, she couldn’t help but laugh. Junior had asked what sort of things Bubbles liked to eat and had gagged when he said sweets. That had caused Pixy to high-five Junior, which of course made Bubbles sad. To make him feel better, Junior pointed out that this only meant he would get the pecha berries all to himself. It worked.

Half an hour into their resumed walk, Pink noticed a lull in her pokemons’ conversation and recalled them. They were almost to the city and it probably wouldn’t do to have three pokemon out of their balls while Pink walked. So she made her way onto the streets of Pewter City alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say here and now that I am in no way a competitive Pokemon player. My understanding of breeding, natures, EVs, and IVs is basic at best. With that said, I am trying to choose natures that make sense to me when it comes to each of Pink's team, be that good or bad or neutral for the pokemon in question. Also when it comes to her checking the info on her team, I have always found it weird that in the games you can just pull up a page that lists all these numbers on them without any explanation. What, does everyone in the Pokemon world just see everything as numbers?! I highly doubt that. So I thought the best way for Pink to get that sort of information was by using the one device in all the Pokemon canons that will give you information on any pokemon in a matter of seconds!
> 
> And if I am honest, "Mr. Fister" could have easily been replaced with "Punchy" to serve Pink's point...but I thought I'd drive home the reason for the T rating as early as possible even if dumb sex jokes aren't really going to be a running thing in this series.
> 
> By the way, you should all come and check out my tumblr, wiloshorts, for more of my writing!


	3. Pewter City Gym

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink makes it to Pewter City! And what's the first thing on her mind when she gets there? THE GYM, OF COURSE!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRAINER BATTLES! TRAINER BATTLES EVERYWHERE!
> 
> Well okay, there's two. But this chapter is primarily about the first gym, the system it works under, and the important battles that take place within it! =D ENJOY!

The Pokemon Center in Pewter City was bustling with trainers. There were seven of them besides Pink, to be precise. Three different parties were relaxing, or getting their teams healed after challenging the gym. While Pink waited for her pokemon to be returned to her, she sat in a corner of the room and observed those around her. Two of the trainers were about her age, and judging by the pokemon they had with them were just as new to the whole gym challenge thing. Two others were teenagers, and their pokemon were evolved. They were clearly more experienced. The last three didn’t seem like the types who were into battling. They all had several of the same types of pokemon, meaning they were more likely to be breeders than anything else.

Seeing all the different types of trainers had Pink wondering. She was confident in her potential as a trainer, but she still had a lot to experience as one. She also couldn’t help but notice that the other trainers weren’t traveling alone. She had been told stories that solo trainers were actually incredibly rare, and that most would travel in twos or threes at the very least. It wasn’t just safety in numbers, it was about companionship. Even the best trainers who have strong ties with their pokemon will get lonely from time to time. Pink smiled at the thought. Her dad was a notorious loner, and yet when he described how others would get lonely his expression would speak volumes about how much he was actually speaking from personally experience. It made her wonder if she would ever meet somebody she got along with whom she could explore the world beside.

As soon as her pokemon were fit to battle again, Pink collected them and left the Center. Her goal was of course the gym, but first and foremost she wanted to restock her supplies. The half dozen trainers she had beaten in the forest had provided her with a small amount of pocket change on top of the money she had gotten before leaving. As such she only had to cut into her savings a little bit in order to get the potions she needed. Once done with that she made a beeline for the gym.

The gym was even busier than the Pokemon Center. Trainers of all ages and experience were gathered to battle together and against the gym leader. Pink knew that some trainers chose to practically live in a gym for some time, battling others in order to build strength. Once they thought themselves strong enough, many would finally take on the leader and move on. Others would remain behind as “professional” gym trainers, making their livings off of the other challengers who didn’t yet think themselves ready for the real test. Heck, Pink had been told that sometimes trainers wouldn’t challenges the leaders at all, but would travel from gym to gym just to battle the experienced trainers there. It was a remarkable and possibly wholly unique system, Pink had to admit.

The so-called professionals of Pewter City’s gym all specialized in rock and ground types, the same as the gym leader himself. This wasn’t uncommon, and was a trend that had been established long before Pink’s grandparents were trainers themselves. Pink decided that as she had no experience fighting rock types she might as well give fighting the professionals a shot.

The first unoccupied one she came across agreed to battle her. They decided on doing a one-on-one match. The trainer had a rhyhorn, so Pink found it to be no question that she should use Bubbles. She had wanted to set up against her opponent, and so she had him use Focus Energy. Unfortunately a single Horn Attack informed her that she didn’t have time to waste. Thankfully Bubbles easily out-sped the rhyhorn, getting in a Low Kick. Pink’s opponent decided it would be best not to give her a chance to get a critical and used Leer, intending on finishing her off the next turn. Nervous, Pink ordered a second low kick and held her breath. Bubbles came through for her, and landed a critical hit that dropped the rhyhorn down to zero. Pink shouted with glee, dashing forward to scoop up her pokemon in a hug. The trainer congratulated her as he turned over the money that was owed.

“Have you ever beaten a gym leader?” he asked.

“Nope. I’m hoping I’ll have my first victory here.” Pink replied.

“You might just be able to. Your mankey’s a bit weak and Brock’s tough, but if you fight strategically you can probably do it.”

Bubbles frowned at being called weak. Pink gave him a quick, tight squeeze to try and cheer him up. “I was hoping to battle him today, but I think my time would be better spent fighting others first. I’ll take him on tomorrow.”

The trainer’s eyes widened a little. “Tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Why? You think that would still be too early?”

“Er… Well your pokemon will probably be at a high enough level, but you know most people spend a few days getting ready to fight a gym leader.”

Pink flashed him a grin. “I’m not most people!” she declared.

The trainer couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “You sure are confident. Well, we can’t exactly stop you if you feel like you’re ready to challenge Brock. I’ll tell you what, if I see you in here looking to take him on, I’ll cheer for you!”

With the vote of encouragement, Pink gave him a thumbs up and sought out her next opponent. Between other professional gym trainers and a couple of other normal trainers, Pink managed to get both Bubbles and Pixy another two levels each. On top of that, Pink had begun the arduous task of switch-training Junior. This made the task of finding trainers to fight a little more difficult, as she had to find those who would agree to two-on-two or three-on-three battles, and then essentially fight them with a handicap. It worked in her favor though, as Junior was able to gain several levels as well.

By dinner time Pink was very ready to sit back and relax in the Pokemon Center. Her pokemon were healed and eating while Pink lounged on a couch in a corner thinking over her strategy for the next day. She had gathered that Brock fought two-on-two for trainers without badges. That meant Junior would have to take a back seat as he still had no way of being useful in a real match. Pixy wasn’t a whole lot better off. If anything, Pink’s best bet would be to start off using her to either lower the foe’s attack or to inflict confusion. Sing had worked well for Pink in the past, but Orange had been right; a move with that low an accuracy wasn’t something to try and rely on in a big match. Once Pixy had gotten in an attack, the next move would be to switch for Bubbles and go all-in with either Low Kick or Karate Chop, depending on whatever the foe was. There was an obvious problem to this plan, that being that it would leave Bubbles vulnerable for a round and his defense was not the greatest, but Pink decided it was going to be her best shot.

After she and her team had eaten, Pink decided to splurge a little and find a nearby hotel to stay in that night. The Pokemon Center was open ‘round the clock and even allowed trainers to sleep on the couches if they chose to. It was a viable option and many trainers took that route. But Pink still had a fair amount of money and she was sore from sleeping in the forest and from doing so much walking, of which she really was not accustomed to. So a hotel it was. She booked a room with two beds so that her pokemon could all sleep soundly together and turned in for the night.

Pink and her team slept late into the morning, enjoying the comfort of a real bed and getting plenty of rest for the day ahead of them. When they all woke they ate brunch and Pink got herself ready. She gathered up her small team and her belongings, checked out of her room, and made a beeline for the gym.

Surprisingly the place was not yet crowded. There were a couple of other trainers there doing their thing, but it was hardly anything compared to the chaos from the afternoon and evening the day before. Pink strode in confidently and approached the man standing guard near the door that led into the gym leader’s private area.

“You here to challenge Brock?” he asked, staring down at the pink eyed girl curiously.

“I am.”

“How many badges you got?”

“None.”

“Wait here.”

The man stepped into the back room to relay the information to the gym leader. It wasn’t uncommon for gym leaders to live in the gym, but their residence was kept separate from the gym proper in order to give them their privacy. It seemed that Brock had this set up. The man who stood guard was likely an officiator for the Pokemon League who possibly also resided in the gym. Pink waited patiently and several minutes later the doors opened again and the man returned, the gym leader in tow. The silence that swept over the large rom was palpable as soon as people noticed what was happening.

“You are the challenger?” the gym leader asked.

“I am.”

“What is your name?”

“It’s Pink.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Brock, Pewter City’s gym leader. And you say you have no badges?”

“None at all.”

Brock motioned for her to follow and the two stepped towards the big arena in the middle of the room that was reserved solely for battles against the gym leader. The two stood apart from each other and the man who had gone to fetch Brock took his place at the edge. He announced his name and rank, declaring that this was hereby an official battle recognized by the Pokemon League. He presented both the gym leader Brock as well as the challenger Pink, both of whom were met with applause from the trainers around them. He gave a lowdown of the rules; two-on-two, all pokemon and moves were legal, all items and held items were also legal, and the battle would continue until both pokemon on one side had fainted. The only illegal move was to use outside help, be it from a friend, the audience, prepared notes, or other sources. Brock and Pink agreed to these terms. With that declaration was made for the battle to begin!

Pink did just as she had planned, releasing Pixy to do what she could to soften things up for Bubbles. Brock sent out a geodude. Geodude began the battle by using Rock Polish, Pixy used Charm. Both were successful and so Pink decided to try her luck with Sing just to see if it would work. It didn’t, and Pixy took damage from a Rock Throw. Pink cringed and switched out for Bubbles. The mankey had to take a magnitude, but thankfully it was low-level and did little damage. Pink recalled the previous day’s training and thanked the powers that be for that experience. She had been able to test something and now had the information she needed in order to make the best decision. She instructed Bubbles to use Karate Chop, and the geodude’s health dropped a large amount. Bubbles took another Rock Throw before being able to finish things off with a second Karate Chop. Brock recalled the geodude, and Pink took the opportunity to switch out as well. Pixy came back onto the field, and Brock released an onix.

Pixy covered her ears at her opponent’s Screech before countering with another Charm. She managed to stay standing after the onix’s next move, which was a Tackle, and tried her luck with a Sweet Kiss. Sure, confusing an opponent that had had its attack lowered seemed counter-intuitive, but Pink wanted to prevent damage to Bubbles at all costs. The move didn’t work. Pink bit her lower lip as she considered her next move. There was a decent chance that Pixy could just barely withstand another Tackle, but a Rock Throw would be the end of her.

“Sorry Pixy, I’m gonna need you to try one more time to confuse that thing.” Pink decided. “Sweet Kiss!”

“Rock Throw!” Brock shouted.

Pink cringed and looked away as Pixy took the attack and was knocked back a few feet, unconscious. “Sorry girl…” Pink apologized as she recalled her pokemon. “I’ll get you back on your feet soon.” She released Bubbles once more. “Okay pal, this is gonna take some doing, but I believe in you. Focus Energy!”

Bubbles obeyed, just managing to out-speed his opponent. He took the Screech, a move Pink had been expecting. Next round Bubbles started off with a Low Kick. It connected, but the onix still had some health left. It connected with a Rock Throw, bringing Bubbles close to fainting as well. Adrenaline pumping through Pink’s veins, she commanded another Low Kick. Bubbles came through for her not only in succeeding, but in landing yet another critical hit as well, not that the extra damage was necessary. The onix fell to the ground, no longer able to battle.

Pink could hardly hear the officiator declaring the match over and the challenger having won. The crowd hollered loudly and she screamed with glee, punching the air before darting out to catch Bubbles as he stumbled and nearly fell over. She danced around in a circle, laughing loudly and hugging her pokemon tight to her chest.

“You were amazing, Bubbles!” she shouted. “Just think, if your stats were better or you had another level and you might have been able to drop that thing in one shot!”

The mankey nuzzled her happily, too exhausted to fully share in her joy. She thanked him for his work and returned him to his pokeball, making the note to herself to give him and Pixy an extra treat for their performances. She was called back to reality by Brock calling her name.

“As you have beaten me in an official battle, I hereby award you with this: Pewter City Gym’s Boulderbadge.” He held out a small grey pin. “Take it, and look after it well. That was an excellent match. You’ve earned it.” He said, smiling down at her.

Pink’s eyes shined at the badge. She took it with slightly trembling hands and grinned up at Brock.

“Thank you so much! It was a fun battle.” She stated.

“That it was. I hope you do well in your other battles from here on out as well.”

Pink received another round of applause from the crowd. They parted a little for her out of curtesy so that she could hurry to the Pokemon Center to get her team healed back to full strength. As she strode quickly through the streets, Pink retrieved a little case that had been given to her by the professor for her birthday. She carefully pinned the badge into the cloth lining the inside before closing it and slipping the case safely back into her bag.

The Pokemon Center was nearly empty when she arrived. A single trainer was at the counter speaking with the nurse. She had a tiny stack of cards in her hand, probably a dozen in number, and was holding them out towards the woman.

“Would you mind me leaving my contact information here?” she asked. “I’m looking for a trainer to guide me through Mt. Moon.”

“Certainly!” the nurse replied, smiling. “You may leave your information here on the counter. I’ll point any trainers who come by towards your card.”

“Thank you.” The trainer said, breathing a sigh of relief.

This piqued Pink’s interest. The trainer, if she was one, looked to be in her mid-teens. She had long, black, straight hair and was dressed from head to toe in white. Attached to her belt were six pokeballs.

“Excuse me. You’re looking for a trainer to take you through Mt. Moon?” she asked, approaching the counter.

The trainer turned towards her, clearly surprised. “I am.”

“May I ask you why? You look like you’re a trainer yourself.” Pink stated, glancing at the teenager’s pokeballs. “Couldn’t you protect yourself in there?”

“Well you see…” the teenager began, frowning. It was then that Pink realized she wasn’t exactly looking at her, but rather just in her general direction. “It isn’t that I need somebody to protect me. My pokemon can hold their own just fine, like I’m sure you expected. I’m blind, you see.” She explained.

Pink’s cheeks lit up, embarrassed that she had had to ask a question like that. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” she said quickly. “I should have noticed!”

The teenager smiled in a friendly manner and shook her head. “Oh no, it isn’t a problem. If anything, I’m glad you asked instead of assuming I was weak.”

Pink smiled again, glad that she hadn’t offended the teenager. “Um, if you don’t mind I’ll be happy to take you. I was going to be going through there anyway. Oh but, I’ll be heading out there tomorrow. You see, I just beat Brock and I want to rest up and have all day to travel. OH! That’s right, Nurse could you attend to my pokemon?” Pink turned to the nurse.

“Certainly!” the woman replied, accepting her pokemon and going into the back to give them a thorough healing.

“I wouldn’t mind the wait at all.” The teenager replied. “If I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting somebody to come along and help me for at least a few days, if not a week. That you’re willing to help me so soon is a blessing.”

“Great! Oh and, my name’s Pink.” She stated, holding out her hand before realizing that the teenager wouldn’t see the gesture.

To her surprise, said teenager reached up, easily felt out her arm, and slid her hand into place so that they could shake hands. She smiled down at Pink. “I’m Rachele. It’s good to meet you.”

“You too. And um…sorry again.” Pink stated, raising their joined hands a little so that Rachele would know what she was talking about.

“It’s no trouble.” She chuckled. “I understand the sentiment and I’ve shaken enough hands to know how to respond.”

With each other’s acquaintances met, Rachele picked up her business cards that she had intended to leave on the counter. Pink caught a quick glimpse of them, noting that Rachele was from Cinnabar Island. She didn’t ask about it, as she didn’t want to pry into the teenager’s business. They exchanged phone numbers, and Pink stated that she was going to go explore the city some more and would be back at the Pokemon center around seven o’ clock that evening. Rachele agreed to meet her then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve decided to start leaving stats about Pink’s team after every chapter, or at least after every chapter where they would have changed. So here’s what things are looking like as of right now!
> 
> Pixy the cleffa is level 14 with Pound, Sing, Charm, and Sweet Kiss.  
> Bubbles the mankey is level 15 with Low Kick, Scratch, Focus Energy, and Karate Chop.  
> Junior the pichu is level 8 with Thundershock, Charm, and Tail Whip.


	4. Into Mt. Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink's escort mission through Mt. Moon has officially begun! But how much does Rachele actually need to be escorted?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize in advance if this chapter feels rushed. I've had several things distracting me this week, so I don't believe I am quite up to par on my writing. I still think this came out fairly well though, all things considered.

A cry of frustration was released as a wild sandshrew broke free from the pokeball that had been thrown at it and ran away. Pink dropped to her knees, recalling Pixy before letting herself fall onto her back upon the hard ground. Above her, Rachele approached with careful steps and thankfully came to a stop in just the right spot so that Pink’s eyes were shielded from the sun.

“Would you like me to try capturing one of those for you?” she asked. “I’m very good at catching pokemon, you know.”

“No…” the girl groaned. “It wouldn’t feel right to use a pokemon somebody else caught for me. Not counting Pixy, of course. I’ll catch a sandshrew eventually. There should be more in Mt. Moon and on Route 4.” With a grunt, Pink sat up and opened her Pokedex. “I already got a jigglypuff and an ekans out here anyway. That’s a pretty good start.”

Taking it has a hint that they were going to be taking a short break, Rachele sat down beside her. “Jigglypuff are hard to come by. You are fortunate to have found one.” She stated, hoping to encourage the girl.

Pink nodded, knowing full well her companion wouldn’t see the sign of agreement. “Yeah… But I still want a sandshrew. I thought a lot about what I want to take with me to the Pokemon League, and a sandslash is one of them.” She admitted.

Rachele recoiled a little in surprise. “You’ve already planned a team? But you’ve just started out!”

“I know that! But unlike the kids I battled this morning, I actually have ambitions!” She gestured wildly at the path they had already come down. Near Pewter City were a collection of young trainers hoping to get in some battling before making their way to Mt. Moon. Pink had spent several hours that morning fighting each and every one in turn before moving on to where wild pokemon would linger. “So I know roughly what I want to fill out my team with. It’s just a matter of finding and catching them…”

“That’s very mature of you; knowing what you want and how to go about getting there. Not to mention having the drive to go through with it.”

Pink beamed at her. “You know it! I’m going to be the Kanto Pokemon League Champion if it kills me!” she punched the air triumphantly, paused, and her gaze turned curious as she regarded the teenager she was with. “Um… If you don’t mind me asking… Why do you want somebody to guide you through Mt. Moon? You’re blind, so what difference does it make where you are?”

“I don’t mind at all.” Rachele began. “You see, I can navigate cities and outdoor areas just fine. Cities are laid out very logically, so it isn’t difficult to find my way around. And outside I mainly stick to paths, which are made by living creatures trying to get somewhere. If I get lost, one of my pokemon can usually help me get my bearings. But in a cave it is a completely different matter. Caves are natural formations, so they don’t follow any normal patterns. People and pokemon do not shape the way caves are laid out, so I get lost very easily within them. Even my pokemon can only serve me so well.”

“Oh… That makes sense.” Pink stated. “Well then, I hope I can prove useful to you.”

It was Rachele’s turn to smile. “I’m sure you will.”

“Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Certainly.”

“I saw on your cards that you’re from Cinnabar Island. What are you doing out here?”

The teenager breathed a sigh, and for a moment Pink was worried she had asked something that wasn’t any of her business. “You see, I want to visit a friend of mine in Saffron City. Normally I would get a ride to Fuchsia, and then go north and through Celadon to get there. But I had business to take care of in Pewter first. So I thought I would go through the mountain to Cerulean and then head south.”

Pink gave an impressed whistle. “You sound like you do a lot of travelling.”

Rachele nodded. “I do. Cinnabar Island is a beautiful place, and I love it, but there isn’t a whole lot for me to do there. I end up spending a lot of my time going between there and Saffron. But that is probably for the best. You see, I catch a lot of pokemon when I travel, pokemon I give to young children who want one of their very own but cannot receive one from their parents for one reason or another. So the more I travel, the greater the variety I can offer to those children.”

“Wow! That’s so cool! You must be really popular if people go to you for pokemon!”

The teenager giggled. “I suppose you could say that. I… I suppose I could say I’m very well respected on that island, yes.”

“I can see why. It’s real nice of you to give out pokemon like that.”

A fond smile crossed Rachele’s features. “I love pokemon very much. I think they’re amazing creatures who can do the most amazing things. If humans treat them with kindness, they can use their own ingenuity to accomplish truly incredible feats with the pokmon they have bonded with. If I can spark such things just by giving each young person their own pokemon companion, then I think I will have served a good purpose. Besides, I love the way children get so excited at meeting their first. It’s something to behold; the way a child might hug their new friend, even though they have only just met.”

Her speech was cut short by Pink beginning to giggle.

“What’s wrong?” Rachele asked.

“Nothing! Nothing! It’s just… You remind me of old Professor Oak. He died when I was really little, but I’ve heard plenty of stories about him. Apparently one of his favorite parts of being a professor was getting to give new trainers their first pokemon. In fact, he gave my dad his bulbasaur!”

Rachele’s lips quivered as she regarded Pink with affection. “That’s… I don’t know what to say. That’s very kind of you to compare me to somebody like him.” Her eyes shone softly as moisture accumulated in them.

Pink grinned and climbed to her feet again. She offered a hand to Rachele, who took it without hesitation and allowed her to help her up.

“C’mon, there should be a Pokemon Center just up ahead. It’ll be our last stop before we go into the mountain.” Pink stated.

*****

From the moment Pink and Rachele stepped into Mr. Moon, Pink couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed. To say that the caverns felt massive was an understatement, and it was immediately apparent that everything spread out in a very mazelike pattern. It did not feel “empty” though. “Empty” was the furthest thing from Pink’s mind as she took her first cautious steps into the cave. Although there were no pokemon or trainers immediately apparent, the cries of pokemon and the sounds of battles echoed from deep within. If anything it gave the whole place of a feeling of being alive. Like the mountain itself was a living beast and every sound was just a normal part of its inner functions. Excitement and awe boiled just beneath Pink’s skin.

“So, is there anything in particular you want to capture in here?” Rachele asked.

“Yep! There’s zubat, geodude, sandshrew, and paras in here!” Pink replied, grinning broadly.

Rachele giggled again. “I said ‘in particular’.”

“I know. You’ll just have to wait and see!”

With that Pink began to explore. Already she had gotten the notion that Rachele could follow her by the sound of her footsteps alone. The noise of the cave worried Pink a bit, but while they were still in the early parts of it the teenager seemed to follow her just fine. That said, Pink did tell her that should it ever become hard to keep up to just say something and they could hold hands. Rachele thanked her.

It was amazing how many items trainers ended up dropping as they scrambled around the caves. Pink had picked up a few lost potions and antidotes in the Viridian Forest, but those were nothing compared to the things she looted from the nooks and crannies they passed. Among the healing items, she found several lengths of rope and even a brand-new TM. She pocketed all of these things for later use, should the need for them ever arise.

Finally they reached an area where pokemon inhabited. The first things they were attacked by was a swarm of zubat that Pink had accidentally disturbed by mindlessly kicking a rock down a short drop. More than half a dozen of them shrieked and flew at them in a panic. Pink shouted, mind racing from the surprise and trying to figure out what to do. Rachele for her part remained very calm, and Pink felt a flash of wonder when she noticed how easily the teenager retrieved one of the ultra balls that adorned the white headband upon her head.

“Go, Kitsune!” she called out.

A blue-silver ninetales erupted from the ball and stood poised on the ledge. It regarded the swarm of zubat with as much tranquility as its trainer.

“Flamethrower the lot of them!” Rachele commanded firmly.

The ninetales cried out sharply, rearing back as a burst of fire formed in its jaws. It spit forth a long stream of flames hot enough to melt iron, filling the ceiling of the cavern where the zubat occupied. A single one managed to escape the flames with only a lightly-singed wing, and Pink finally snapped back to her senses and gave it chase.

Every zubat was badly wounded now, but they still attempted to do harm to the ninetales. It stood steadfast and took each attack with little more than a flinch. Rachele dug into her bag and pulled out a couple handfuls of ultra balls. She took a deep breath, focusing her attention on listening to where each pokemon was. In turn she hurled each ball, and each one hit their mark. Seven ultra balls hit the ground one after another and all quit shaking in a matter of seconds. She released her breath in a sigh and held out her hand, to which her ninetales pushed its muzzle into it and she stroked it gently.

“You were perfect. Thank you very much. Now would you be so kind as to pick those up for me?” Rachele asked.

The ninetales turned around and bounded to each ball, picking it up and bringing it back. By the time all seven had been tucked away, Pink had returned with a victorious grin plastered across her face. It faltered a little when she realized that Rachele had actually captured all of the zubat she had just faced.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said you were good at catching pokemon.” Pink stated.

Rachele giggled again as she put away the last of them. “I’ve had a lot of practice.” She turned to face Pink.

“Pichu?” Junior asked from Pink’s arms where he was being held. His gaze was on the ninetales and Pink finally had the presence of mind to say something about it.

“OH! Right, your ninetales is incredible!” Pink shouted. “I’ve never seen a shiny pokemon before!”

“We get that a lot.” The ninetales nudged Rachele’s hand again and she stroked its head once more. “I’ve been told she’s really beautiful. Her name is Kitsune.”

Junior hopped out of Pink’s arms and over to Kitsune. She lowered her head to sniff him, and he sniffed her right back. The two seemed to approve of each other, as when they parted all ten of their tails waved about happily.

“Junior, meet Kitsune. Kitsune, Junior.” Pink laughed.

“There will be time for introductions later.” Rachele stated, recalling her pokemon. “Now is not the time for that. It is too dangerous in a cave.”

Pink hummed to herself. “You’re right. Return, Junior.” she commanded and her little pokemon went back into his ball.

“I do wonder though, did you capture that zubat that escaped?”

“I did!” Pink shouted, suddenly remembering why she had been so proud of herself before. “It was awesome! Junior zapped him and he got in the pokeball so nicely. Unlike a certain sandshrew… But that zubat is all mine now, and he’s going to be coming with me!”

“So it was a zubat you were looking for!”

“It was! I think I’m gonna name him Sonic, too.”

The puzzled expression on Rachele’s face spoke volumes. “Because he uses echolocation?”

“Nope! It’s because crobat are really cool. They’re super fast, and attack out of nowhere, like a ninja!”

It took the teenager a moment to process what she had just said, but she ended up giggling again. “That’s as good a reason for a nickname as any.”

“I thought so.” Pink beckoned for Rachele follow before taking a couple of steps so she could hear her intentions. “C’mon, I want to get a little deeper into this cave before bedtime.”

“Lead the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Try not to think too hard about how a ninetales with flamethrower cannot one-shot a bunch of low level zubats. =|
> 
> Pink's team's stats~  
> Pixy the cleffa is level 15 with Pound, Sing, Charm, and Sweet Kiss.  
> Bubbles the mankey is level 16 with Low Kick, Scratch, Focus Energy, and Karate Chop.  
> Junior the pichu is level 12 with Thundershock, Charm, Tail Whip, and Thunder Wave.  
> Sonic the zubat is level 9 with Leech Life, Supersonic, and Astonish.


	5. Mountain Thugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deep within Mt. Moon, Pink and Rachele come across a pair of thugs dressed in black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I...may have started this chapter with absolutely no idea what to do for it. =| The next few I've got plenty of ideas for, but this one was giving me all kinds of trouble. Hopefully it is still good, though!

Night fell and Pink and Rachele set up camp deeper within Mt. Moon. They could hear other trainers doing the same not too far off, so they suspected it would be safe enough for the night. The following day had them waking early to push even further into the caves. While hopeful that they’d make it out by nightfall, both had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy. If it were a simple straight shot, maybe, but there were a number of obstacles in the way. Namely other trainers who were eager to battle.

Not that Pink minded. Each and every person she came across she was more than willing to battle. At first she apologized to Rachele for getting them sidetracked so much, but the teenager simply smiled and said that she understood, that it was good for Pink to get in as much experience as possible. After one particular battle, Pink had to take a moment to dig through her bag in order to heal Junior. Rachele took the opportunity to ask something.

“Do you always command your pokemon like that?”

“Like…what?” Pink asked, turning a confused gaze up at her.

The teenager worried her bottom lip a little while she thought of how to describe what she meant. “You tell them one thing at a time, and are always in complete control of what they do.”

Pink had to give herself a moment to process the question. She recalled her pokemon and stood up again. “Sorry, I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Am I not supposed to do that? Everyone else I’ve come across does it that way.”

Rachele put a hand to her chin in thought. “Hm… I suppose the best way to make you understand what I mean is to show you. The next trainer who challenges you, let me battle them instead.”

“Sure.” Pink replied, genuinely curious as to what her escortee was trying to show her.

Unfortunately for the two of them, they had gone so deep into the mountain that they didn’t come across a single new trainer for quite some time. This gave Pink a chance to capture the paras and geodude she was after, although the sandshrew she wanted continued to elude her. As the time slipped by it made her wonder if they would have to wait until the following day when they were sure to be on Route 4 for her to see what Rachele wanted her to.

Finally, they got their chance in the form of two young adults down in the lowest levels of the mountain. They were both dressed in mostly black and were clearly standing in a way so as to block the path for anyone trying to go through. Pink thought it odd, but still intended to go through even if they wanted to battle. Sure enough, the two perked up the moment they noticed the two girls.

“Well what do you know? Standing here is actually going to pay off.” The young woman said.

“It wouldn’ve been quicker if we were further in.” The young man replied.

“Shut up with that! There’s too many trainers in there! Standing here is the perfect way to pick off stragglers!”

The man rolled his eyes and Pink took that opportunity to speak up.

“Um, excuse me, if you two want to battle you can just say so.”

The woman grinned menacingly at her. “Oh? A battle? HA! We’re not here for battles. We’re here for your pokemon.” She held out a hand towards her. “Now hand ‘em over!”

“What? No way! I’m not going to give you my pokemon!” Pink shouted. “Why should I? I caught them! Go get your own!”

“I don’t think you understand, little girl, we’re not asking for them. We’re _taking_ them! A child like you doesn’t need pokemon.” She looked over at Rachele. “You too! You may be older than the brat, but you’re still in no way in need of having pokemon. So you give me yours as well. You two be good and give them all to me, and you can leave this cave in one piece. Otherwise I’m going to have to beat you down and take them by force!”

Pink opened her mouth to say something, but Rachele took a step forward. “Then by force it shall be.” She stated calmly, once again retrieving an ultra ball from her headband. “Because I am not going to give anything to a miserable thug like yourself.”

With what sounded very much like a growl, the woman too pulled out a pokeball. Beside her, the man also pulled one from his pocket. The pair released their pokemon, a raticate and a golbat. Rachele frowned and fetched a second ball so as to fight them fairly.

“Pay close attention, Pink.” She said softly to the girl. “I’m going to show you exactly what I was talking about earlier.”

Rachele tossed both ultra balls, releasing both Kitsune as well as a yellow arcanine. For a moment Pink marveled at Rachele’s luck at having two shinys before realizing that the pair of thugs were practically drooling at the opportunity to get their hands on such rare pokemon.

“Ember, I want you to provide support. Kitsune, wait for a good chance to use flamethrower.” Rachele instructed.

Despite the vague instructions, both pokemon looked like they knew exactly what to do. Their opponents were commanded to use Wing Attack and Hyper Fang. Both of Rachele’s pokemon were faster, Kitsune using Confuse Ray on the raticate and Ember using Sunny Day. In turn, the golbat landed its hit on Kitsune, doing rather little damage due to their level difference. The raticate on the other hand was confused and ended up using its attack on the golbat. The following round, Kitsune finished off the golbat with her Flamethrower, and Rachele commanded Ember to go ahead and end the battle with a Solarbeam.

Both trainers were left flabbergasted, the difference in their levels all too clear. Pink too was in awe, not having been aware of just how high a level Rachele’s pokemon were. The man silently recalled his pokemon, but the woman swore and stomped over to her raticate.

“USELESS!” she spat, kicking it. “What good are you if you can’t even win a single battle?!” She turned to face her partner and pointed an accusing finger. “You too! What were you even thinking?! You should have confused that arcanine!”

“Golbat doesn’t know Confuse Ray yet! What, did you want me to use _Supersonic_?” he shouted in defense. “And you shouldn’t go around kicking your pokemon, Francine!”

“I can do whatever I want with that thing!” she replied, turning to give it another kick.

In the same moment she yelped and fell on her butt. Ember’s fangs had suck into her raised leg just hard enough to tear through her pants and hold her in place. Kitsune stood beside him, a Flamethrower already burning to life in her jaws. Rachele approached calmly and gently lifted the wounded raticate into her arms. She stroked its fur and fetched a revive from her bag in order to heal it.

“Unfortunately I do not have the authority to take this poor thing away from you.” Rachele stated. “However, I would advise you to not treat your pokemon so horribly.”

Through the pain of her leg having been dropped to the ground and the threat of getting burned, Francine turned her head and spat on the ground. “What a wimp. I can’t believe we lost to somebody like _you!_ Pokemon are tools, and just like any tool the defective ones need to be gotten rid of.”

“Pokemon are living creatures, and even those that are weak can do amazing things when handled with care.” Rachele retorted calmly. She turned her attention to the man. “I do not know why you are here with somebody like her, but you seem like a much better person.” She held the raticate towards him. “Because I must, I am letting you decide what ought to be done with this pokemon.”

The raticate leapt from her arms and into the man’s, where it buried its face into his shoulder and quivered in fear. Rachele took that opportunity to calm her pokemon and get them both back into their balls. Pink finally breathed a sigh, hoping that no more unnecessary violence was going to be taking place.

“I do not want to hear any reports about two thugs taking pokemon from trainers in Mt. Moon.” Rachele stated. “If I do, there will be hell to pay.” She turned and beckoned for Pink to come with her before stepping passed both trainers. Pink hurriedly followed.

Once they were out of earshot of the pair, Pink spoke up. She was quiet and still a little shaken. “Who were they?” she asked.

Rachele breathed a sigh. “I am almost positive they are members of Team Rocket.”

This caused Pink to pause. “Wait. But… Didn’t they disband _years_ ago?! There hasn’t been any news of them since my dad was a teenager!”

“It’s true that they disbanded a long time ago. Their leader, Giovanni, disappeared and the remnants were brought to justice in the following years. But there’s been a recent resurgence of them. They aren’t the same lot, obviously, but they use the same name. Oddly most of them aren’t thugs like those two, or at least not like Francine was. I’ve heard tell that their goals aren’t quite the same as they were back in the day, either. Most of them detest the idea of treating pokemon poorly, and they aren’t so focused on rounding up strong ones.”

“So…they aren’t criminals?”

“Oh they most certainly are. Just as those two demonstrated, they do still try to steal pokemon from innocent trainers. It’s just that there has yet to be any major incidents.”

The two went silent for a little while, Pink once again taking point during that time. It wasn’t for another twenty minutes that the girl remembered the whole reason that Rachele had battled the two of them in the first place.

“Oh yeah!” she shouted suddenly, catching Rachele off guard. “That was so cool! You barely gave your pokemon any instructions and they battled so well! How did you do that?”

Rachele blinked, taking a moment for the sudden praise to sink in. She giggled. “Ember has Sunny Day, as you saw, and Kitsune knows to lower the chance of taking damage with Confuse Ray. After that, Kitsune did as I told her and used Flamethrower. Of course, she could have easily done that from the start and won, but that wouldn’t have proven my point. As for Ember, he knows Flare Blitz which could have been used from the start as well. But since he had used Sunny Day, I thought he may as well take advantage of that in a different way from Kitsune. To put it simply, they both knew what I wanted from them because I’ve trained them that way.”

“So… What you’re saying is that if I start to teach my pokemon what I want them to do now, then eventually I’ll be able to set up a series of attacks without actually saying it out loud?”

Rachele smiled broadly. “You catch on quickly. It’s not something you’ll see too many people do, but it can help you down the line. If your opponent doesn’t know what you’re doing, because you aren’t saying anything, but your pokemon does because it knows your strategies, it will give you just that little bit of an advantage.”

“That’s amazing!” Pink cried. “I’ll definitely have to give that a try! Oh but… I don’t think my team has that sort of synergy between them.”

“It doesn’t have to be used for two-on-two battles. Just teaching your mankey to use Focus Energy and which of the pokemon you fight most often are to be Karate Chopped or Low Kicked would be a good place to start.”

Pink frowned. “About that… I… I don’t think I’m going to use Bubbles much anymore.”

“What?”

“He’s been really helpful to me so far but…well…” Pink stopped walking and looked down at the ground. “I don’t really want to keep using him. Pixy just learned Magical Leaf, so I’ll be able to fight rock types that way. Besides, mankey and primeape aren’t as strong as I’d like from a fighting type. And with Bubbles’ nature, that’s even more true. So… I think I’m gonna let the professor have him when we get to Cerulean City. I don’t like parting with a pokemon like that, but I think it’ll be for the best in the long run. Besides, the professor will take good care of him, and if I ever need him again I’ll still be able to use him, unlike if I were to release him.”

Rachele frowned. “Well… If that’s really how you feel, then I’m not going to stop you. I’m certainly not in any position to try even if you were on the fence about it.”

Pink nodded, her thumb idly stroking Bubbles’ pokeball on her belt. “Yeah. It’s not an easy decision, but that’s what I’m gonna do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *GASP* A trainer that doesn't use the same pokemon all throughout their journey?! That's right. Pink is going to be picking up some pokemon here and there that will only be temporary members of her party. Bubbles is just the first of them.
> 
> STATS!  
> Pixy the cleffa is level 18 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Sweet Kiss.  
> Bubbles the mankey is level 17 with Low Kick, Scratch, Focus Energy, and Karate Chop.  
> Junior the pichu is level 15 with Thundershock, Charm, Tail Whip, and Thunder Wave.  
> Sonic the zubat is level 9 with Leech Life, Supersonic, and Astonish.
> 
> I'd give the stats for Ember and Kitsune, but for various reasons I'm not going to bother sharing anyone's team but Pink's. If you're curious, both of Rachele's pokemon that we have seen are in their high 40s in level.


	6. Partings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink's escort mission comes to its end, and Rachele is not the only one who leaves the girl's side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay in updates! Something came up and I ended up skipping the last update in order to recharge. But now I’m back in business! Also, I have a little something to talk about in the end notes. So be sure to read those.

The pair of trainers managed to leave Mt. Moon just before bedtime. Pink let out a happy shout and ran out onto Route 4 a short ways. Rachele giggled, amused by the younger trainer’s joy at being out of the cave. Pink breathed in a deep breath of fresh air before turning to her companion.

“As much as I want to get to Cerulean City, we should make camp.” She stated.

“Find a good place and we’ll do that.” Rachele agreed.

They found a quiet patch of grass just off the beaten path and made themselves comfortable. Pink released Pixy, Junior, and Bubbles and fed them their dinner. Having used her pokemon, Rachele let Kitsune and Ember out of their balls in order to give them something to eat as well. For a little while, the five pokemon got to know one another and played together. As much as Pink had been intending to break the news to her team that Bubbles would be sent to the professor, she just couldn’t bring herself to ruin the mood yet. Instead she chose to ask something of Rachele that had been on her mind since she had first seen Kitsune.

“Why are they called ‘shiny’ pokemon?” Pink asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“Well I mean, they’re not _shiny_. They just have a different coloration than most of their kind. So it’s something I’ve always wondered. My dad doesn’t know. I’ve asked the professor, too, but he just said he would look into it and never got back to me.” Pink fidgeted a little. “If you don’t know that’s fine. I’ll ask the professor again when I talk to him next time.”

“Actually, I do know.”

“Really?!” the girl shrieked excitedly, leaning closer to her. “Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

Again Rachele burst into a fit of giggles. “Sure! Have you heard the tale of the red gyarados?”

“Of course I have! That’s the most famous shiny pokemon that’s ever been!”

Rachele nodded. “The story goes that Team Rocket once forced a lot of magikarp at the Lake of Rage in Johto to evolve prematurely. The gyarados were all in a rage and caused all sorts of problems, making the waters and the surrounding area very unsafe. Among the gyarados was a single red one. Because the incident was widely reported, the red gyarados got a lot of attention. The reporters at the time had said that its color came from the fact that it had retained its red color from when it was a magikarp.”

“But that makes no sense! The other gyarados were blue!”

“That’s right! Even though that’s what they reported, most people didn’t buy it for that very reason. And it’s smart that they didn’t. A while after that incident, somebody finally came along and asked the local fishermen about it. According to them, there used to be a prized but very elusive golden magikarp that lived in the lake. They said that no one had ever caught it, but they always knew it was there because they could see its scales shining in the sunlight, even from a great distance, whenever it swam near the surface.

After the red gyarados had been captured by a brave young trainer and the others were calmed, the fishermen no longer saw that golden magikarp in the lake. In time, people began to piece it together that it was the one that had evolved into the red gyarados! Because the fishermen always talked about the golden magikarp the same way, saying that it’s scales shined, people began to associate that word with oddly-colored pokemon in general. And that’s how shiny pokemon came to be called.”

The girl stared at Rachele in awe, jaw slack. A few moments passed and Rachele began to worry that the girl had fallen asleep or something.

“That’s…so…COOL!” Pink shouted, eyes sparkling. “I’m _so_ going to tell the professor about that! I mean, if he hasn’t heard about it already. Thank you for telling me!”

Rachele cast her a friendly smile. “You’re welcome.”

Their conversation died down, and their pokemon began to huddle together for the night. Pink decided it was finally time to break the news. She called all three of her pokemon to get their attention and sat down beside them.

“All three of you have been amazing, and I can’t tell you how proud I am of you all.” She began, her tone somber. “But I’m afraid I’m going to make some changes to the team when we get to Cerulean. Bubbles? You don’t have to worry about battling anymore. I’m going to be sending you to Professor Oak.”

Junior and Pixy looked to Bubbles sadly. The mankey’s eyes watered and he tilted his head, looking for more information.

“I couldn’t have gotten this far without you. Believe me, you’ve been wonderful and I’m sad to let you go. But don’t think of this as good-bye! Oh no. See, the professor will take really good care of you, and there will be other pokemon for you to meet and play with. Even other mankey and primeape! Plus, if I ever need you again, he’ll be able to send you right back to me in an instant! So we’ll see each other again. I’m just giving you some time off.”

Bubbles glanced down at the ground, still on the verge of tears. Pink frowned and picked him up gently, hugging him to her chest. “I’ll miss you. I really, really will.” Pixy and Junior joined in the embrace, hopping onto her lap and wrapping their little arms around Bubbles. The mankey closed his eyes and buried his face in her chest. He was sad to be leaving, but it was as Pink had said: he was going to be taking some time off. And honestly? A part of him was happy about that. He’d been able to help her, but he really didn’t like battling. Leaving her party to live with this “professor” seemed like it would be a good thing.

*****

Much to Pink’s delight, finding a sandshrew on Route 4 was easy. Before it had a chance to get away from her, Pixy managed to put it to sleep with Sing. Due to the difference in their levels, the little cleffa used Pound a single time and dropped its health down very far. Pink chucked a pokeball before clasping her hands together in prayer. The ball wriggled only a tiny bit before stopping, the sandshrew having been caught. The girl shouted with joy and high-fived Pixy before returning her and picking up the pokeball.

“I’ll check out your stats later. For now, I dub you ‘Zacherie’!” she cried out, nuzzling the pokeball with glee.

“You’ve been thinking on that name, haven’t you?” Rachele laughed.

“Ever since Route 3, yeah. For the record, I would’ve called it ‘Sugar’ if it was a girl.”

“That’s… You have an unusual naming scheme, if I may say so.”

“How so?”

Rachele shook her head. “Nevermind. It doesn’t matter.”

With a shrug, Pink grasped Rachele’s hand and the two continued down the route. There weren’t any trainers about, as Route 4 was on the shorter side and many travelers were either too tired from trekking through Mt. Moon or were trying to save up their strength to do so. Pink didn’t mind. She was looking forward to relaxing in Cerulean City for a while.

Their feet hit pavement and not long after they were truly within the city’s limits. Rachele extracted her hand from Pink’s and took a few steps ahead of her, turning around to face her with a smile.

“Thank you so much for escorting me.” She stated.

“No, thank you for helping me get this far!” Pink replied. “Your pokemon are really cool!”

The teenager’s grin widened. “Then I suppose I should say ‘you’re welcome’. But since we’re here now I think it’s time we went our separate ways. I’m sure you have a lot in mind for the next few days. I on the other hand really must be getting on my way. Saffron City is close by, after all.”

Pink frowned. She was going to miss her companion. “Yeah, that makes sense. Well, take care, okay? Let’s meet again someday! You still have my phone number, right?”

“I certainly do. I’m not very good with phones, but you’re welcome to give me a call whenever you’d like. Good luck on your journey!”

“Thank you!”

Rachele gave her a little wave before turning back around and going off on her own. Pink watched her for a moment before heading down the road in search of the Pokemon Center. As was often the case, she found it situated close to the heart of the city. She handed her pokemon, save for Bubbles, over to the nurse. She looked around and located a computer in one corner of the room that was hooked up to a large machine with a small circular divot on its surface. Pink pulled the little chair away from the computer desk and sat down. She pulled out her phone, connected it to the computer, and made her call. It rang a couple of times before the screen clicked on to show her the face of the man she was talking to.

“I’m amazed it took you this long to call, Squirt!” the professor said in greeting.

“Hi Professor Green! I mean, Oak.” Pink teased with a giggle, the sight of his face brightening her up a lot more than she had expected. “How are my pokemon?”

“They’re doing well. Quite the lively bunch you’ve caught.”

“Great! By the way, I’m in Cerulean City right now! And guess what. I beat Brock and won a Boulderbadge. Pixy and Bubbles, he’s my mankey, they were so awesome! Hey, hey! And I met this trainer, she’s really cool! Her name’s Rachele and she’s blind and she has two fire-type pokemon! She named them Ember and Kitsune. Oh! Ember’s an arcanine and Kitsune’s a ninetales. And guess what! Guess what! They’re both shiny!” Pink spoke quickly, her excitement bubbling over.

Green laughed, only able to take in all that she was saying because he had known her for so long. “Sounds like you’ve had quite the adventure already. To think you only left about a week ago.”

“I know, right?! I can’t wait to see what else is out there! Man, I wanna challenge the gym leader here so badly. But I probably won’t get to for a couple of days. Pixy hasn’t evolved yet, and Junior needs to also. Junior’s my pichu, by the way! Isn’t that a cute name for him?”

“Because of your dad’s pikachu?”

Pink nodded vigorously. “Exactly! I also have this zubat named Sonic, but I haven’t battled with him yet. And I just caught a sandshrew! His name’s Zacherie!” she giggled. “Pixy’s the only girl on the team.”

“I’m sure you’ll catch others.”

Again Pink nodded. Then she fell silent and fidgeted a little bit. “Um… Professor, about why I called you…”

“What’s up?”

She held up Bubbles’s pokeball. “I want to send Bubbles to you. He’s been real helpful, but I want to free up his spot on my team.”

The professor smiled knowingly at her. “Alright. Send him on over.”

Pink got up and placed the ball in the little divot. She and the professor both agreed to the transfer on their ends and the pokeball was sent on its way over to him. Not a moment later he stepped away from the screen and came back, the pokeball in hand.

“He made it here safely. Anything else you need?”

Pink shook her head. “Not really. Um… Do you know why they’re called ‘shiny’ pokemon?”

For a moment Green looked surprised and then frowned. “Sorry. I forgot all about that.”

The girl smiled. “Rachele explained it to me! I’ll have to tell you about it someday.” She giggled.

Green groaned, somewhat playfully. “Going to hold that information over me? That’s not very nice, Squirt.”

Pink stuck out her tongue at him. “That’s what you get for not looking it up when you said you would! Besides, the rest of my pokemon should be all healed up by now, so I should hang up.”

“Right. Well th-”

“Is my dad there?” Pink asked suddenly.

The professor blinked in surprise. “How did you know?”

“I’m not there to keep him busy. Where else would he be when he’s bored?”

He let out a laugh. “Fair enough. He’d be lost without either of us around.”

“No he wouldn’t! He’d be on top of a mountain!” she giggled.

“Ah, right. How could I forget? You want me to put him on?”

Pink shook her head. “Nah. I’ll talk to him later.”

“Alright. Well take care, Squirt. And be sure to give us a call now and then. He misses you, and so do I.”

The girl nodded. “I will. Say ‘hi’ to Daddy for me. Bye-bye!”

“Bye!”

The screen turned off as their called ended and Pinked picked her phone up again. She took a deep breath and let out a sigh. Bubbles was going to be alright. The professor would take excellent care of him. She was going to miss him, but that seemed to be the case for a lot of things lately. A little surprised by how much she suddenly wanted to cry, Pink pocketed her phone and went back to the counter to get her team back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will now take this time to inform you all that there is going to be some changes to the schedule for this fic’s updates. Like before, it will be updated on the 1st, but the second update of the month will be coming on the 21st from now on. Also instead of having a 2,000 word minimum, it will be only 1,500 words at the least. This is to make room for another fic I am adding to The Fanfic Corner. Sorry for any inconvenience, but this is a decision I have made after thinking about it for over a month!
> 
> …In my mind, Green calls her “Chibi”. But I suppressed my inner weeaboo just this once and went with “Squirt” instead.
> 
> \- Pixy the cleffa is level 18 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Sweet Kiss. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard  
> \- Junior the pichu is level 15 with Thundershock, Charm, Tail Whip, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> \- Sonic the zubat is level 9 with Leech Life, Supersonic, and Astonish. Nature: TBA, Ability: Inner Focus  
> \- Zacherie the sandshrew is level 11 with Scratch, Defense Curl, Sand-Attack, Poison Sting. Nature: TBA, Ability: Sand Veil
> 
> So Junior’s name has now been more or less explained. And Sonic’s namesake has been mentioned. Twenty points to anyone who can tell me where Zacherie and Bubbles got their names!


	7. Happiness Evolutions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink heads to Routes 24 and 25 in order to train up her pokemon some. She also notices something three of her team have in common.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized both Junior and Sonic hadn't really been shown in a battle yet and decided that needed to be amended. Meaning this chapter is quite battle-heavy.
> 
> It's also made me realize how boring early battles are. Can't wait to write some full six-on-six battles. *sigh* One day... =P

Pink received her pokemon back from Nurse Joy and fitted their pokeballs back onto her belt. As she did, she went over what her game plan for the rest of the day would be. She had a fair amount of money from the trainer battles she had won, plus the reward she got from defeating Brock. She decided to swing by the Pokemart before leaving town and proceeding north to Routes 24 and 25. With another quick thank you to the nurse, she turned to leave.

Only to walk right into another trainer who had just come in.

Panicked by the sudden collision, Pink hurriedly offered her apologies, only to freeze up the moment she met the trainer’s eyes. The trainer was a teenager of similar age to Rachele. She dressed all in black, and her purple eyes bore into Pink’s dangerously. She looked _pissed_.

“Are you going to keep standing there?” she asked in a flat tone that made the girl shudder.

“Oh! Right! I’m so sorry, really!” Pink squeaked out, stepping passed her and hurrying out of the building. She kept running down the block until a streetlight made her stop. She shivered and hugged her arms about herself. “What a scary person…” she muttered to herself. “I hope I don’t ever run into her again.”

*****

Sonic the zubat flew above a wild bellsprout’s head before diving in to Bite it. Pink called him off and chucked a pokeball, catching the pokemon with relative ease. She breathed a sigh of relief. The oddish and venonat she had caught earlier had both taken two pokeballs, and it had taken her four encounters with an abra in order to catch one of them. She was thankful that she had just been to the mart to resupply.

Pink held out her arm and Sonic landed on it happily. “Thank you for your hard work.” She told him. “To think I’d be lucky enough to catch a zubat with a speed nature!” She returned him to his pokeball and snatched up her new bellsprout. She sent it off to the professor while she proceeded further down the route.

Routes 24 and 25 were both very short, and many people considered them to be one and the same. In fact, no one was entirely sure where one started and the other ended. In Pink’s mind the cluster of trees that formed a small maze were where Route 25 started. As both offered the same types of pokemon, she had been doing her catching in the tall grass where other trainers weren’t as likely to disturb her. Now that she had picked up everything she knew of, she decided to try her hand at some actual battles.

She lucked out. The first trainer to spot her in the trees was another girl of similar age. The girl challenged her, and released a pidgey. Pink grinned. It felt like it had been forever since she got to use Junior. The battle didn’t last very long. Junior used Thundershock to take off a chunk of the pidgey’s health. He was hit with a Sand-Attack, followed by a Quick Attack. After that he finished off the pidgey and the trainer sent out a spearow. Both girls were certain they knew how things were going to turn out. Junior missed his next attack and had to take four hits from a Fury Attack. Another Thundershock was all it took to knock out the spearow.

The girl grumbled as she dug out her wallet. “I knew I should have caught an oddish. At least then something of mine could stand up to electric types better…”

“A ground type might be even better than that. There are sandshrew on Route 4, you know.” Pink stated as she received her prize.

“Really? Oh, those are cute too! I’ll have to think about that.” The girl laughed before heading back to Cerulean City to get her pokemon healed.

Pink was about to return her pokemon when she felt Junior tug at the leg of her shorts. “Pichu, pi!” he cried.

“Nasty Plot? Yes I want you to learn that! Um, let me think… Right now you’re more of special attacker. So forget Tail Whip.” Pink told him. He nodded and did as she said. She picked him up and thanked him for battling and returned him to his ball.

As she did, another trainer approached her. He was a man with a large backpack, and if Pink were to guess she would say he was a hiker. He had seen her battling and thought her fairly skilled, so he wanted to challenge her. Not being one to say no to a battle, she agreed.

Somewhat predictably he released a geodude. Pink’s hand automatically reached for where she had kept Bubbles and she had to pause. She frowned, forcing herself not to tear up and grabbed Pixy’s ball instead. She thanked the powers that be that she still had a pokemon capable of taking on rock types as she released her first pokemon.

The geodude started with Defense Curl, and Pixy failed to put it to sleep with Sing. Cursing her bad luck, Pink decided to try another tactic. Pixy got knocked around a bit by a Rock Throw, and returned the favor with a Sweet Kiss. The next round brought another Rock Throw, which Pixy barely managed to stand up against. Upon her trainer’s command she unleased a Magical Leaf, doing a lot of damage to the geodude. The opponent’s confusion managed to kick in and it ended up dropping its next rock on its own head. It didn’t do much damage, but it left Pixy still able to battle and she brought it down with another Magical Leaf.

The hiker recalled his one pokemon and Pink hurried to hug her pokemon. She came to a screeching halt and stared in delight as Pixy began to glow. The little cleffa grew in size and her silhouette changed some. It took only a few seconds for her evolution to complete and Pink shrieked with joy, scooping her first pokemon up into her arms and holding her tightly. The hiker congratulated them both as he handed over what Pink had earned. Both Pink and Pixy thanked him before moving on to find more trainers.

As mid-afternoon approached, Pink found a quiet little area to sit down and take a break at. She had still been carrying Pixy, proud of her pokemon for her evolution and wanting to show her off, and released Junior and Sonic as well so that they could have a snack together. Although Junior had briefly seen Pixy during battles, he now stared up at her, his eyes sparkling in amazement at her evolution. While happy that he was excited for her, Pixy pointed out that they had a new friend among them that they hadn’t really met yet.

Sonic was all too happy to say hello to the pair, and they welcomed him immediately. While the three greeted each other, Pink rummaged through her bag for the last of the berries she had on hand and passed them out to her team.

“You know, you three have something in common.” She stated, opening a granola bar for herself. “Each of you has a happiness evolution in your line.” She smiled down at Junior and Sonic. “I hope I can make you both happy enough that you’ll evolve!”

Both pokemon returned her smile, giving her the impression that so far she was doing a good job. She let her pokemon eat in peace for a few minutes, enjoying the soft breeze in the meantime. When she saw that Sonic had eaten all of his berries, Pink extracted something from the pocket of her shorts. The soft tinkling of a bell caught all three pokemon’s attention and they started up at her curiously.

“This was a big expensive, but I think it’ll be well worth the price I paid.” She admitted, holding out the little bell that had been put on a necklace. “I’ve never tried using an item like this. Sonic, hold still.”

The zubat did as he was told and she slipped the necklace over his head and made sure it was tight enough that it wouldn’t slip off easily. Junior grinned broadly and gave the bell a quick tap, all three of her pokemon gleefully smiling at the sound it made. Sonic flapped his wings and took to the air, flying circles around them to make the bell ring its pretty little chime. He landed again when Pink held out her arm for him and she gave his head another petting.

“I hope to find something suitable for all three of you to carry around in time. But for now, that soothe bell is all I have. So I’m glad you like it, Sonic.” She stated.

“Pichu!”

“I know you’re jealous.” She giggled. “Come here.” She reached down, careful not to tilt Sonic off balance, and scooped her small electric-type up into her other arm and hugged him tightly. Pixy shoved what was left of her last berry into her mouth and climbed up onto Pink’s lap, giggling as she joined in the impromptu group hug. “I love you three.” Pink laughed, doing her best to support her pokemon that together were just a bit too much for her lap to hold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We all know that a person saying "I hope I don't ever run into X again" means it is pretty much guaranteed that they'll run into X again, right? Otherwise, um...spoilers?
> 
> Hehehehe...


	8. The Frightening Trainer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink spends a night on Route 25 before returning to Cerulean City. Back at the Pokemon Center, she once again comes across a familiar face and she ends up learning some rather interesting things about them...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have anything to say about this chapter before ya'll read it. So read away and I'll talk at you in the end notes! =D

Pink’s day of battling ended when she arrived at the end of Route 25. It was dark already and the trip back to Cerulean City would take a couple of hours. Instead of trying to make the journey, she decided to set up camp. A few other trainers had similar ideas, and it wasn’t long before the small, scenic area around the small lake became covered in exhausted trainers settling down for the night. Pink released her team and rationed out food for them and herself.

While eating, Pink’s eyes roamed the area, curious about what other trainers were up to. She could see a few solo travelers like herself, but most people were in groups. After having spent time with Rachele, she could understand all the more why people would want to be in groups. It brought about a small feeling of loneliness, despite having her pokemon to keep her company.

Once they had eaten she recalled her pokemon so that she could get herself ready for bed. Pink didn’t bother to set up a tent. She didn’t see the need. The weather was warm and calm, and she trusted the people around her not to try and take her things. Trainers were usually kind that way. Usually. There hadn’t been all that many reports of crimes among trainers out on routes in some years.

As she laid in her sleeping bag staring up at the sky, she noticed some lights up on the mountain not too far away from where she and the others were. There were only two of them, but they had the distinct shape of windows. A thought occurred to her. There was a pokemon researcher by the name of Bill who lived on Route 25. Many aspiring trainers would try to pay him a visit to acquire whatever knowledge they could, but the man was often busy. He was responsible for creating the earliest versions of PC storage system for pokemon back when Pink’s father was her age. Nowadays he traveled all over the world making sure his system, which had since been well expanded upon, was still functioning properly. If the lights were any indication he was at home right now. If other trainers saw that, which Pink had no doubt they did, that meant that tomorrow he would be flooded with visitors. The girl decided that while she was curious what he might be able to teach her, she wouldn’t go bother him. After all, Bill kept in contact with other researchers, which meant that Professor Oak surely knew a good deal of what he would tell her.

When dawn broke, Pink got herself ready for the day, packed up her camp, and began her walk back to Cerulean City. Routes 24 and 25, in addition to having little distinction between them, had two separate paths. The path that was most traveled was just like any other route. Trainers would catch pokemon and battle together if they met. The secondary path was very much man made and it was sort of an unspoken rule that anyone who walked along it was not looking for battle. This was the path that Pink took. Despite using her items and being careful, Pink knew her pokemon needed a proper healing at the Pokemon Center and were not fit for battle. Besides that, Pink felt stiff after having slept outside and just wanted to get back to the city and relax some before checking out the local gym.

Unfortunately for her, the world had other plans, and that was apparent from the moment she stepped through the Pokemon Center doors. The center was empty, save for the nurse and a single other trainer. It was the same girl from the day before. Pink couldn’t help but make eye contact with her and she felt a chill run down her spine again. She looked away as quickly as possible and hurried to the counter to turn over her pokemon. Afterward, she took a seat at the far end of the long sofa that took up an entire wall. The girl watched her from the other side and Pink tried to ignore her stares.

“Hey, you!”

Pink jumped. If it weren’t for the fact that she _knew_ they were alone in the room, she would have tried to ignore her and play it off as thinking she was speaking to somebody else. Instead she hesitantly looked her way.

“Y-yes? Can I…help you?” she asked, getting a better look at the trainer that frightened her so.

“This might sound crazy, but I’m looking for someone. She’s about my age, average height, usually wearing all white, blind, and uses fire type pokemon. You seen anyone like that?”

Pink’s eyes widened in surprise. Rachele had said she was going to visit a friend, but she had already gone off to Saffron City. If this was her friend, why was she here in Cerulean looking for her?

“Are you talking about Rachele?”

It was the teenager’s turn to look surprised. She leaned in a bit closer and narrowed her eyes in scrutiny. “Yes. How do you know her?”

“I ran into her in Pewter City not too long ago. She was looking for an escort through Mt. Moon, so I took the job. I was with her until just yesterday, in fact. When we got into the city, she thanked me and went on ahead to Saffron on her own.”

“Shit!” the trainer spat out angrily and shoved a hand into her pocket. Pink couldn’t help but recoil at her expletive, but she watched with curiosity as the trainer brought up her contacts and hit the first one on the list. As her phone began to ring, she put in on speaker. Somehow that made Pink even more nervous.

The voice that answered was unmistakably Rachele, and she spoke in a chipper tune as if nothing was wrong. “Hey Michele! Talk about timing. I was just about to call you! I’m about ten minutes from your gym.”

That word, ‘gym’, certainly got Pink’s attention. Her mouth hung open as the teenager in black picked up the conversation.

“How are you in Saffron City already?!” the trainer shouted, clearly annoyed.

“What? I’ve been on my way for-”

“I _meant_ ‘how did you get passed me?’! I got into Cerulean yesterday and was just thinking about heading out to Mt. Moon. How come I didn’t see you?”

“What? Why would you come for me?”

“I was worried you wouldn’t make it through the mountain! I was going to come get you.”

Rachele sighed on the other end. “Michele… I’m happy that you were worried about me, really, but I told you that I would call if there was a problem. I met a very kind trainer who led me through the caves just fine and I really am just down the road from your place. Really, you worry too much.”

The teenager, Michele, rubbed her temples and groaned. “I know you met somebody. She’s sitting right here.”

Both Pink and Rachele reacted to that with sounds of surprise. “Really? Pink, you’re there with Michele?”

“Um…yeah? Hi. Um, I wouldn’t really say I’m here ‘with’ Michele, though…”

“Michele!” the blind teen shouted accusatorily. “Did you interrogate her?”

“Lay off! I did no such thing.”

“Then how did you know she had been with me?”

Seeing Michele visibly flustered somehow put Pink a little more at ease. Just a tiny bit. Her back-and-forth with a person whom Pink considered a friendly acquaintance made her seem less like an intimidating wall of darkness and more like an actual person. It gave the girl pause and she took a moment to really observe her. Just doing so made Pink wonder how she had ever actually found her to be scary in the first place.

Michele was small. She was barely taller than Pink, and her build was almost frail. The most intimidating thing about her was that Pink had only ever seen her scowling. One curious thing did catch Pink’s eye, however. A single pokeball hung around her neck on a silver chain. It wouldn’t have been altogether odd if not for her carrying five others on her belt. Most trainers had all of their pokemon in one place, even those with clear favorites. It was a small thing, but it stuck out to Pink like a sore thumb for some reason.

“I, uh, look that’s not the point!” Michele grumbled into her cell’s microphone. “I just asked if she’d seen somebody matching your description and she said yes. Now answer my question! How did you get passed me?”

“I don’t know. Cerulean City is big. It’s entirely possible that we took different streets, you know.”

Michele groaned again. “Look just… Just get to the gym and _stay put_!” she insisted. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She didn’t wait for a response and ended the call. Michele leaned back against the couch with a muttered “Arceus…” and breathed a sigh. Pink was about to ask her if everything was okay, but Michele cut her off by turning a glare in her direction, a glare that reminded Pink of why she found her to be scary. “Thank you for assisting my friend, I suppose, but if you’ll excuse me I need to retrieve my companion and get my ass back home.”

Again, Pink flinched at her language, but said nothing in reply. She didn’t know what she could possibly say to that. She watched silently as Michele stood up from her seat and shoved her phone back into her pocket. The nurse had come back out into the lobby as if on cue, carrying a tray with Pink’s pokeballs, plus an extra guest. It was an espeon. Michele approached and the pokemon hopped from where it had been seated and onto the counter. Pink was mildly surprised as she saw the teenager crack a smile and stroke its head, the espeon rubbing it’s head and face on her palm lovingly. It waved its tail from side to side, four little purple bells tied to the tips of its tail ringing pleasantly. Michele tapped her shoulder and the pokemon hopped onto it, Michele placing a hand on it to help stabilize it while it got situated. She thanked the nurse and was then out the door.

Pink waited until she was gone before getting up to retrieve her own pokemon. “Um…excuse me but, do you know who that girl was?” she asked the nurse.

“I do!” she replied with a smile. “That’s Michele, the current Saffron City Gym leader! She’s a trainer of psychic types, if you couldn’t tell. It’s strange, she’s been in here a few times, but I don’t think she’s ever had that espeon in a pokeball… Well, not that it matters. We nurses are here to help any pokemon in need.”

Pink hadn’t heard the latter half of what she had just said. The chill that had wracked her body before was now back with a vengeance. Saffron City Gym was on Pink’s list of places she wanted to challenge eventually, and that meant she would have to battle Michele one day. She had just barely started to feel okay sitting in the same room with her. How was she supposed to battle somebody whose stare causes goosebumps to rise on her skin?

Pink thanked the nurse for her help and left the Center. She felt a bit numb thinking about what the future held for her. She decided that sitting around relaxing was no longer in her schedule for the day. She was going to scope out Cerulean City Gym and get some experience with water types in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find it really amusing that Michele makes her formal appearance this chapter. This update overlaps with one of my original works' updates. For those who don't know, Michele and Rachele are a couple characters of mine who have wormed their ways into a lot of my works. Both this chapter and the update for the other thing are rather Michele-centric, and in both of them it gets revealed that she is a user of psychic powers. I don't really know HOW things ended up this way, but it did.
> 
> Now then, PINK'S TEAM!  
> -Pixy the clefairy is level 21 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Sweet Kiss. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard   
> -Junior the pichu is level 20 with Thundershock, Charm, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> -Sonic the zubat is level 18 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
> -Zacherie the sandshrew is level 11 with Scratch, Defense Curl, Sand-Attack, Poison Sting. Nature: TBA, Ability: Sand Veil


	9. Water Type Practice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink goes to the Cerulean City Gym for a little while to get in some practice against water types and the gym's unique area design. Afterwards, she gets a surprise phone call and runs into a familiar face yet again.
> 
> Edit: NOW WITH A FEW IMPORTANT SENTENCES I MISSED!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's actually a fair amount more to this chapter than just water type pokemon battles buuut...I already decided on the chapter title and do not feel like changing it!

Cerulean City Gym was known to specialize in water type pokemon. Despite that being a relatively common type to come across, Pink’s experience with fighting them was limited to a single fight against a slowpoke and a psyduck. She found it a bit unfortunate that both Junior and Pixy, the pokemon she planned to use against the gym leader, were better off with special attacks than physical. She hoped that Misty’s pokemon would be on the physically tanky side, despite knowing that was unlikely.

Upon entering the gym, the first thing Pink noticed was that most of it was made up of large pools to accommodate the water types that were used there. She groaned. She had decided that depending on the gym’s make-up, she would try to fight Misty right away, as her pokemon were decently high leveled already. But with the pools, that made learning how to fight on them a priority. So she began to look for a trainer to battle.

The first gym trainer that accepted her challenged agreed to fight two-on-two. The first opponent was a goldeen, and Pink let Pixy take the lead. She discovered that despite the opponent having near-free movement in the pool and Pixy being restricted to a few floating platforms, all Pixy really needed to do was wait for the goldeen to surface before attacking. Luckily, surfacing was something goldeen had to do if it wanted to land a hit, and so Pixy was able to bring it down fairly easily. Upon her victory, Pixy gained a level and indicated to Pink that she could learn a new attack. Pink instructed her to forget Sweet Kiss, and instead the clefairy learned Wake-Up Slap. Pink hoped that between it and Sing she could pull off some fun little tricks.

After the goldeen came a horsea, and Pink switched out to Junior. Unfortunately for him, the gym trainer informed Pink that electrifying the water would be considered against the rules in an official match. However, he still had almost as easy of a time as Pixy, thanks to Pink already knowing the basic strategy behind how to fight on the water. When the horsea got knocked out, to Pink’s surprise Junior began to glow and evolve. Pink shouted with glee when she saw him as a pikachu. At first Junior looked very surprised, but then he grinned and turned around to hurry into his trainer’s awaiting arms. After a quick hug, he told her that he too had a new move that he could learn. Pink had to give it some thought, and decided that if he had another attacking move it would be for the better. She considered all of his moves to be good, though. In the end she had him forget Charm and instead learn Slam.

The next trainer Pink found only had one pokemon, so she decided to mix things up a little bit. She let Sonic try his wing at fighting a water type. In the end, his battle against another goldeen turned out to be about the same as his fellow party members’. He flew above the water, waiting until he spotted horsea coming up to attack him. After that, he would dive in to use wing attack before it could slip back under. Thankfully he was quick and could do just that very well.

*****

A short while later, Pink returned to the Pokemon Center. She had gotten into a few more battles using Junior and Sonic just to get them a little bit higher up in levels. She debated with herself if she still wanted to challenge Misty that day, as there was still some time left in which she could. In the end, she decided against it and finally chose to sit down and relax like she had intended to earlier in the day. She sat down on the couch and released a heavy sigh.

Just as she began to wonder what to do with her free time, her phone began to ring, causing her to jump in surprise. She quickly pulled it out and was shocked to see that the call was from Rachele. She answered it immediately so as not to bother anyone else in the Center with her phone’s ringing. She also got up and stepped outside while she greeted her surprise caller.

“Hello? Rachele, I thought you said you hated using the phone.” Pink stated.

“Oh good, I called the right number.” The teenager sighed. “I do hate it. Voice recognition isn’t always the best thing, you know? How are you?”

“Um, as good as I was earlier today. How about you?”

“I’m doing alright, thank you for asking. Listen, about why I called… Has Michele already left Cerulean City?”

Pink looked around, although she didn’t know why. She knew she wouldn’t see the other trainer. “I’m fairly sure she has. She picked up her pokemon from Nurse Joy and left right after your call with her ended. Why?”

Rachele let out a huff. “I’ve been trying to reach her, but she isn’t answering her phone. I tried calling it at least three times but I don’t get even a single ring. I wanted to tell her that a bunch of Team Rocket grunts had been caught by the police for stealing pokemon on Route 5. I’m worried she might not be able to make it into the city today.”

“What, really?!” Pink shouted. “But she’s the gym leader, right? Doesn’t she have, like, authority in these sorts of situations?”

Rachele giggled on the other end. “Oh, so you heard about her status, huh? Yes, she is the Saffron City Gym Leader, but that doesn’t mean she can just meddle in an affair that the police are already taking care of. Besides, it’s not like we gym leaders aren’t away from out gyms a lot. If the police have the road blocked, then even we are not allowed to go passed without a very, very good reason.”

“That’s weird.” Pink stated bluntly. “Well, I’ll keep an eye out for her. If she comes back to the Pokemon Center here, I’ll tell her you tried to call.”

“Thank you, Pink. Well, take care of yourself.”

“You too. Bye-bye!”

“Good-bye.”

Pink hung up and hummed to herself. She couldn’t say she liked the prospect of speaking to Michele again, but she had made a promise. With a sigh she went back inside and picked up her team from Nurse Joy again.

Several hours later and near to Pink’s bedtime, the doors to the Pokemon Center opened up again. Pink wasn’t the only one to look and see who was coming in so late in the night. There were three other trainers who were staying there as a group who turned their heads curiously. Little to Pink’s surprise, it was Michele, her espeon in tow. The older trainer scanned the room until she locked eyes with Pink before making a beeline for her. Pink couldn’t help that she jumped in fear.

“You. Pink, was it? Has Rachele contacted you since I left?” she snapped, clearly agitated.

“Y-yes!” the girl stuttered out, still very much intimidated by the older trainer. “She was worried that you wouldn’t be able to get into Saffron… She said she tried to call you but couldn’t get through…”

Michele clicked her tongue. “Of course… It was my fault; I was the one who forgot to charge my phone and it must have died while I was on my way. Some idiots were being rounded up by the police and the road was closed off. I had a feeling she would have tried calling me about it. Damn it!” Pink flinched, still not liking how freely the teenage gym leader swore. “Now I have to wait until tomorrow.”

Pink wasn’t sure what compelled her to ask, but she did anyway. “Hey um… Tomorrow I’m going to challenge the gym leader here and then head south if I win. Do you…want to travel with me? It might be less dangerous that way. You never know what shady characters might have managed to get away from the police.”

The older trainer raised an eyebrow at her, but the corners of her lips also turned upwards into something that vaguely resembled a smile. “I don’t know if you are aware of this, but I’m a gym leader. Something like a few Team Rocket thugs aren’t a problem for me. In fact, I might even have been allowed to go by the roadblock today, but I didn’t want to bother to identify myself to the police. Or are you trying to say that you want a body guard?”

The girl frowned. She felt she couldn’t specifically deny that, as she was frightened by the idea of a gang showing up to try and steal her pokemon from her. Pink _was_ only ten years old and her team was still weak, after all. Instead she decided to be partially honest in her reply.

“You scare me more than Team Rocket does… You could keep them away with the way you glare at people.”

To Pink’s utter shock, Michele snorted and then burst into a fit of laughter. She clutched at her sides as she doubled over a little. The corners of her eyes teared up, and she had to wipe them away with a knuckle before she tried to speak up again. “Wow. I can’t knock you for your honesty.” She stated, a smile definitely showing on her face. Pink didn’t know whether it scared her more than her glaring, but somehow she figured she had managed to get on the teenager’s good side. “Alright. Then I will wait until after your big match tomorrow before I leave. But if you lose, I’m not going to wait for you to rematch Misty. You lose, and you’re on your own through Route 5.”

Pink’s face lit up happily. “It’s a deal!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Pixy the clefairy is level 22 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Wake-Up Slap. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard  
> \- Junior the pikachu is level 22 with Thundershock, Slam, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> \- Sonic the zubat is level 20 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
> \- Zacherie the sandshrew is level 11 with Scratch, Defense Curl, Sand-Attack, Poison Sting. Nature: TBA, Ability: Sand Veil
> 
> One of these days Zacherie will get used. I swear. =|
> 
> Hey, just a reminder, you all should go check out my tumblr, wiloshorts, if you want updates about what's goin' on with this fic or my other main works!


	10. Cerulean City Gyn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink takes on the Cerulean City Gym Leader with Michele watching from the sidelines!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, folks! The day for this update sort of crept up on me and I just wasn't feeling it. So I gave myself a couple days to rest and recharge and now here's your chapter! Enjoy! =D

Pink and Michele both woke up bright and early. Michele fed her espeon and while they ate their breakfast, Pink asked a question that had been burning in the back of her mind for a while.

“Why don’t you keep your espeon in a pokeball?” she asked.

“Because he isn’t mine.” Michele replied matter-of-factly.

The girl stared at the teenager, confused as to what that statement was supposed to mean. “Um…so does that mean he belongs to a friend or a parent or…?”

“Not at all.” Michele stated. She gave him a light scratch between his ears as he ate. “He’s wild.”

“Wild?!”

Michele nodded. “I’ve known him since I was a young girl and he was just an eevee. I found him newly hatched in a bush on Route 7. His mother was nowhere to be found, and while pokemon are able to fight from birth I didn’t like the thought of leaving him alone. So I brought him home and he’s been with me ever since.”

“So wait…” Pink scratched her head. “You took him home and never thought to catch him?”

“I never said that.” The teenager received another puzzled stare and elaborated. “I did capture him. He was my pokemon for a time, but some things happen and his pokeball got destroyed. Technically speaking, that makes him wild. I do not own him, so I cannot use him in official battles. But he has always followed me and will still battle for me if I ask him to. And before you ask, I’ve thought to capture him again, but I don’t particularly see the need for that. I am happy to have his company regardless of whether I am able to use him in my gym or not.”

Pink couldn’t help but coo over Michele’s bond with the espeon, letting out a little “aw” while she watched the teenager pet him. “Did he evolve before or after he became wild?”

“After.”

“That’s so sweet!” the girl exclaimed. “He evolved for you even though he didn’t belong to you!”

Michele was silent when she nodded her agreement. Pink could just barely see the way the corners of her mouth were turned up in a smile as she gazed at the espeon.

“Um, a couple more questions if you don’t mind. Does he have a nickname, and what are those bells on his tail for?” Pink asked.

“He does not. I’m not one for nicknaming pokemon. Just call him Espeon. As for the bells, they matched some that I occasionally wear. They’re meant help Rachele follow us in a crowd.”

“I see. That’s really thoughtful of you.”

Again, Michele only nodded in reply. Slowly Pink was beginning to think that she had grossly misjudged the teenager, and that perhaps she wasn’t actually scary at all. She certainly seemed normal enough now that Pink got a chance to sit and talk with her.

They finished their meal and gathered their belongings. Michele announced that to make things easier on the both of them that she would accompany Pink to the gym. Surprised, Pink decided to let her. Michele did, however, remind Pink that just because she was tagging along did not mean that she would offer the girl any assistance, both because doing so was disallowed and also because she was not out to give Pink an easier time than everyone else. Pink knew this already and said she wouldn’t have it any other way.

The gym leader of Cerulean City was already out on the floor when Pink arrived. Another challenger with a few more badges under his belt was battling her. Pink took the opportunity to watch Misty’s strategy in hopes of gaining any information to use against her. She didn’t learn a whole lot; what she saw only reinforced the fact that she would have to play the waiting game because of the nature of the arena. Once Misty had been beaten and the badge and prize money had been turned over to the trainer, Pink made her move.

The gym leader and officiator agreed to the match and decided on the terms. As Pink had been expecting, the battle would be two pokemon each, and Misty’s team was around level twenty. Confident that Pixy and Junior had the upper hand due to levels, Pink strode out to her side of the arena. Misty joined her a moment later with the two pokemon she would be battling with in hand. The officiator declared the start of the match, and the first two pokemon were released.

Pink decided to lead things off with Junior, as she had a feeling Misty would save her heavier-hitter for last and Pixy had a better special defense stat. Misty’s first pokemon was staryu, something Pink had not fought before. The girl wasn’t knowledgeable about staryu’s stats or move pool off the top of her head, but that didn’t distract her too much. She instructed Junior to use Thundershock the moment his opponent surfaced.

The staryu just barely out-sped him, surprising Junior with a Water Gun. Junior was only half a beat behind it, though, and his Thunderstock struck home. To Pink’s delight, the staryu fainted and Junior gained another level. Misty released her second pokemon, a starmie. Unfortunately for Junior he was not able to pull off another thundershock and went down to another water gun. Pink recalled him and sent in Pixy. There was no doubt that the starmie would be faster than Pixy, and it caused Pink some concern. She knew that Pixy would be able to stand up to at least one hit, but she wasn’t so sure about two and it would definitely take more than one Magical Leaf to bring the starmie down. Because of this, she decided to try and pit everything on a successful Sing.

Sure enough, Pixy took the first Water Gun for nearly half of her health. To Pink and her pokemon’s delight, Sing was successful, and starmie floated uselessly on the surface of the pool. Pixy managed to pull off two Magical Leaf’s, nearly depleting her foe’s health entirely. Just to finish things off with style, Pink commanded a Wake-up Slap. The attack connected, and starmie was down for the count. Pink shrieked with joy at her second gym victory and Pixy’s level up. The pokemon hurried back to her trainer and Pink caught her in her arms.

Misty recalled her starmie, and she and Pink met at the side of the pool. The gym leader congratulated Pink on a job well done, and the girl couldn’t help but giggle and hug her pokemon tighter. She received her reward; the Cascade Badge and a decent sum of cash. Pink thanked the gym leader and gleefully joined back up with Michele.

“I did it!” she cheered loudly.

Michele nodded. “I saw that. Congratulations on your victory.”

Pink’s jaw nearly hit the floor. Despite their rather friendly conversation that morning, she had honestly expected some sort of snarky or otherwise derogatory remark from the teenager. After taking a moment to process the slight praise, the girl absolutely beamed with happiness.

“So that means you’ll come with me through Route 5, right?” Pink asked eagerly.

“That’s correct. Heal your pokemon at the Center and we’ll get a move on.”

With a delighted giggle, Pink recalled Pixy and led the way back out of the gym. Michele followed at her heels, Espeon riding on the teenager’s shoulder. As they left, Misty caught the officiator’s attention again for a moment.

“That girl, Pink…” Misty began. “Did you recognize the one she was with?”

“I’m sorry, Miss, I did not.” The young woman replied.

“That was Michele, a fellow gym leader from Saffron City. She’s the anti-social type. I’ve never seen her hanging around a kid like that before.”

“Maybe they’re related?”

“I don’t think so. But…” A smile graced Misty’s features. “It’s wonderful to see her playing nice with another person! I wonder if I should call Sabrina and tell her, or if she already knows.”

*****

It did not take long for Pixy and Junior to be restored to full health. Pink apologized to Junior for letting him faint, but he was not bothered by it at all. While they were stopped, Pink decided to introduce both of them as well as Sonic to Michele and Espeon. She explained the situation to them, and asked that they treat their companions well. Her team were happy enough to oblige. Espeon, too, was willing to play nice with the other pokemon. And again to Pink’s surprise, Michele greeted all of her pokemon kindly.

Once introductions were out of the way and everyone who had a pokeball of some sort was put back inside, Pink and Michele made to leave Cerulean City. Route 5 was of course to the south. The day was still young and the streets were crowded, but once they were out on the route things calmed down considerably. Espeon left Michele’s shoulder where he had been perched in favor of trotting along beside her. The soft but steady jingling of the bells on his tail made Pink aware of how useful such a sound would be for somebody like Rachele to follow in a crowd.

“So um, if you don’t mind, there’s a pokemon out on this route that I’d like to capture while we’re out here.” Pink informed her companion.

“Oh? Something for your team?” Michele asked.

Pink shook her head. “See, I’m trying to catch a lot of different kinds of pokemon while I’m traveling. It’s to help Professor Oak. I don’t have a meowth, so I want to catch one.”

“Professor Oak?” the teenager inquired with a raised eyebrow. There was a half-second’s pause before something clicked in her head. “Ah, you must mean the ‘new’ Professor Oak. A man by the name of Green.”

“Yeah, him!” Pink exclaimed. “Do you know him?”

“I do not. I only know a few stories about him. Common knowledge. Things like how he used to be a trainer and how he was a gym leader for a time.”

“Oh. Well it’s nice to know that people still know about him.” Pink giggled. “I’ll have to tell him that even new gym leaders know about him some time.”

“You are more than welcome to do so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TEAM STATS!  
> \- Pixy the clefairy is level 23 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Wake-Up Slap. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard  
> \- Junior the pikachu is level 23 with Thundershock, Slam, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> \- Sonic the zubat is level 20 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
> \- Zacherie the sandshrew is level 11 with Scratch, Defense Curl, Sand-Attack, Poison Sting. Nature: TBA, Ability: Sand Veil


	11. Another Parting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink and her unlikely companion Michele proceed through Route 5. It is a relatively short trip, and they must part ways at its end. But then Michele returns to her home to finally meet with Rachele, and perhaps not all is as it seems at first glance...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, I had absolutely NO drive to write this chapter, despite knowing what would go into it since finishing the last. But I did it, and here it is. My apologies if it isn't quite up to snuff.

Michele had been expecting their progress through Route 5 to be delayed some. Pink was a new trainer and could use all of the battling experience she could get both for herself as well as to raise up her team. So it came as no surprise to her when Pink battled everything they came across. Pink’s main motivation behind fighting every last pokemon was to get her sandshrew, Zacherie, up to speed. It was at or below the level of most of the pokemon on the route, so she often switched him out for Sonic. Because of this, Zacherie was able to grow a surprising amount, and even learned Swift in place of Sand-Attack.

As much as Zacherie was finally getting use, Sonic too was getting a lot of experience. Near to the end of the route, the zubat had gotten enough experience that he evolved. Pink let out a whoop of joy and caught him in her arms as he swooped in for a hug. Sonic was much larger than she was and so she couldn’t pick him up and whirl around with him in her arms like she wanted to. Instead she settled for squeezing him tightly and letting him lift her off of her feet by a few inches. Michele watched them, the faintest of smiles on her face.

After the little celebration ended, Pink began to search harder for the one pokemon she really wanted from the route. Thankfully it did not take her too long, only about twenty minutes. Zacherie was leveled up enough that he alone was needed in order to capture the meowth. The new pokemon was sent off to the professor, and Pink finally announced that she was ready to move on.

There were two gatehouses at the southern end of Route 5. One led into Saffron City and had a number of police posted, probably to deter any straggling Team Rocket members. The other housed the entrance to an underground tunnel that went beneath the city and connected to Route 6. From Pink’s body language, Michele picked up that she was going to be heading for the tunnel. The teenager stopped and spoke up.

“I take it you’re not going to Saffron City?” she asked.

“You could tell?”

“You knew I was going there, but only asked that I join you through the route. Plus you’ve been drifting towards the tunnel while we’ve been walking.”

The girl shrugged. “Well, you’re right. I’m taking the tunnel and heading for Vermillion City.”

“I see. Is there any particular reason for skipping cities?”

Pink nodded. “There is.”

A second passed and Michele smirked. “I take it you’re not going to tell me.”

“Nope!” Pink laughed.

“Very well. Then let us part here.” Michele stated. She held out a hand towards Pink, and with a moment of hesitation the girl shook it. “I cannot say it was nice meeting you, but I suppose it was not unpleasant. Come to Saffron City sometime and challenge my gym. I would like to battle you one day.”

This was cause for Pink to pause. Half a second later a huge grin spread across her face and she gave a nod. “I will! Saffron City’s on my list of gyms to challenge, so you bet I’ll show up one day and _destroy_ you! You’ll never see it coming!”

The teenager chuckled. “Is that so? Well then, I look forward to seeing how much you’ve grown. Take care of yourself.”

“Yeah! You too.”

With a nod of her head, Michele began to head towards Saffron City with only Espeon at her heels. Pink turned and stepped into the building to enter the underground tunnel.

*****

Michele’s trip through Saffron City wasn’t very long, but she was already tired. The walk from Cerulean City already took a few hours without interruption, but Pink had certainly dragged it out a bit more than she would have preferred. However what she had said was not a lie; Michele had found it intriguing to watch the young new trainer clumsily battling both in the gym as well as on the route. There was talent there, but Pink was still quite rough around the edges. The teenager couldn’t help that she was smiling, albeit faintly, as she thought about battling the girl someday. She wondered just how much stronger her pokemon would be, and how much better Pink would be at commanding them.

With a yawn, Michele stretched her arms above her head and stepped around behind her gym and towards the back door that lead into her place of residence. She had hardly gotten the door open and called out that she was back than Rachele came hurrying down the hall and tackled her excitedly. Espeon, who had been riding on his favorite person’s shoulder since entering the city, quickly hopped down so as not to get caught up in the greetings. Michele stumbled back some, but didn’t fall. She smiled even more brightly and gave her friend a quick squeeze before the taller girl pulled away from her.

“Welcome home!” Rachele exclaimed happily.

“Thank you. I’m sorry it took me so long.” Michele sighed. “I walked back through Route 5 with that Pink girl.” She explained as she led the way further into the house.

“Oh, that explains it.” The other girl giggled. “She certainly does take her time, doesn’t she?”

“She does.” Michele replied with a nod. “Are my parents home?”

“They’re not. Your mother left this morning to take care of…something. She didn’t say what. And your father hasn’t been around since I got here. We have the place to ourselves for a while.”

With a groan Michele ran a hand through her hair. “Great, I’ve gotta make lunch for myself then… You hungry too?”

With another giggle Rachele replied that she was and made an offer to help. It went unaccepted, but she accompanied Michele into the kitchen anyway. While the short teenager went about making something for the both of them and Espeon, Rachele leaned against an unused part of the counter. Michele glanced at her a few times, suspecting she had something she wished to say, but didn’t press the issue. It wasn’t until Michele had plated and passed out all of their meals and sat up on the counter to eat that Rachele finally spoke up, starting with a “thank you” for the food.

“So… There were a pair of grunts stationed near to the Cerulean City exit to Mt. Moon.” She stated.

Michele raised an eyebrow, knowing that it went unseen. “Francine and Franklin?”

Rachele nodded. “Francine is correct, although I didn’t get his name. Pink and I had a little trouble with them, but I took care of things. Ember and Kitsune made quick work of them, and I showed Pink a little something that may come of use to her in the future while I was at it.”

“I see. I’m sorry you had to deal with them.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem!” she giggled. “They weren’t anything I couldn’t handle with ease.”

“Then why did you bring them up?”

“Well, it’s about Francine really. When she lost to me, she began beating her raticate.” Michele dropped her fork and it clattered onto the floor, startling Espeon. She stated wide-eyed in shock at her friend. “She kicked it, and began shouting about how weak and worthless it was.” Rachele grimaced. “I had my pokemon restrain her while I gave the poor thing a revive. It clung onto me in fear after that. I couldn’t take the poor thing away, so instead I gave it over to Franklin. I wanted to let you know as soon as possible, but, well, some things cannot be said over the phone and while in the presence of an innocent young girl.”

Michele’s free hand was gripping the edge of the counter, knuckles turning white. Shock was slowly replaced with barely restrained rage and she scowled, gritting her teeth together in disgust. “Thank you for telling me.” She growled, sliding off the counter to pick up her fork. “I will take care of things from here.” There were a few seconds of silence as she quickly washed her fork in the sink. “Just thinking about what that poor thing must have gone through before makes me _sick!_ In fact, I feel nauseous thinking about what it might still be dealing with…” she turned to her friend, pointing at her with the now-clean fork. “From here on out, you’re allowed to remove any abused pokemon from any of the grunts. If they protest, just tell them to take it up with me. I’ll beat their asses myself. Understood?”

Rachele nodded, a smile forming on her lips again. “Right. I’ll do that from now on. Thank you.”

“No, thank you for informing me of this as soon as possible.” Michele sat on top of the counter and began to eat again. “There are too many sick fucks out there trying to dirty the name of Team Rocket. Trying to undo all of the hard work I’ve put in these last six years.” She let out a heavy sigh. “I suppose that’s what happens when you deal with a bunch of senseless thugs. I couldn’t even trust them not to say anything stupid around the police yesterday when I tried to come here. Which by the way, their gathering was not permitted beforehand. So I have no idea what the hell they were doing.”

Rachele giggled again. “I know. That’s why I tried to call you.”

Michele shook her head and sighed again. “Thank you. But this conversation really is not suitable for having over a meal.”

“Alright, then how about this: what did you think about Pink?”

Michele cast her friend a grin. “Now that is an excellent choice in topic. She has a long way to go, but I will admit she is most interesting…”

“I knew you would say that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...Michele has ties to Team Rocket, and Rachele knows. I wonder what that's about. B)
> 
> HUZZAH! Zacherie's entry in this team thing is finally a-changin'!  
> \- Pixy the clefairy is level 23 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Wake-Up Slap. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard  
> \- Junior the pikachu is level 23 with Thundershock, Slam, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> \- Sonic the golbat is level 22 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
> \- Zacherie the sandshrew is level 15 with Scratch, Defense Curl, Swift, and Poison Sting. Nature: Adamant, Ability: Sand Veil


	12. Ground Type Woes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Through the underground tunnel, over Route 6, and into Vermilion City! Pink is all too happy to arrive at her next destination, but there is something bothering her...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize if there are more errors than usual. I fell behind schedule, and so all of this was written and proofread only a couple of hours before posting.

The underground tunnel was the strangest place Pink had been to yet. It was fairly bleak, save for the occasional strip of red or blue tilling instead of the normal brown. A few fake plants lined the walls, but they did little to make the place feel more welcoming. Even the lighting was dim and left many areas cast in an odd shadow. Pink found herself thinking that it wasn’t necessarily scary, just a little on the unnerving side.

What did help to change up the mood of the place were the occasional trainers. Some were riding through on bikes, some were just sitting around waiting for somebody to pass so they could battle, and others still were of course only strolling through as Pink more or less was. In total she ended up challenging or accepting the challenges of eight different trainers, using mainly Zacherie and Pixy. At one point Pixy leveled up and tried to learn Cosmic Power, but Pink didn’t have her learn it.

Once back outside the girl breathed in the fresh air deeply. Route 6 was short, but it was getting late and there were many trainers out and about who would no doubt try to battle her. In addition to that, Pink knew of a pokemon that made its home there that she wanted to capture. So she decided that the less backtracking she would have to do, the better. She found herself a nice little spot that was out of the way and set up her camp.

She released all four of her pokemon, and of course Zacherie was immediately crowded by the other three. Pink let out a giggle.

“Every, this is Zacherie. He’s been with us for a while, but I’ve only started using him recently.” She introduced. “Zacherie, meet Pixy, Junior, and Sonic. They’re your fellow party members!”

The sandshrew proved friendly enough with the rest of them. Pink had only pokemon food for the three higher leveled ones of her team, but since she hadn’t yet had a pokemon that liked spicy things she was able to give Zacherie some cheri berries for his dinner. He tried to be nice and share some with the others, but only Junior took one, and even then he traded some of his food for it. Pink couldn’t help but smile a little as she watched them. She was very thankful that none of her pokemon thus far had caused her problems, especially when she had heard more than a few horror stories about her dad’s charizard that he got from the professor in a trade.

That night she decided to let her pokemon sleep outside of their balls. When Pink last saw them before dozing off, they were all curled up together with Sonic gently blanketing them with his wings. When she woke up, he had somehow been pinned onto his back with the other three happily sleeping on top of his wings. From the way he was snoring, however, Pink got the impression he didn’t mind. Still, the image of the four of them snoozing together so cutely had her dig out her phone so that she could take a picture.

Their breakfast passed much the same as their dinner, only it was Sonic who made the little trade with Zacherie in his attempt at good will. Once Pink was ready, she recalled all but the sandshrew so that she could carry him with her and strengthen their bond a little more.

Along the route she battled another half a dozen trainers, managing to raise Sonic up a tiny bit more and Zacherie until he could learn Fury Swipes. Pink thought hard about replacing Scratch with it, but decided she had been pushing her luck enough with using Sing that it would probably not work to her benefit. So in the end his move pool remained the same.

In addition to the trainer battles, she managed to find the pokemon she had been keeping an eye out for. It was a magnemite. In battling it, Pink was suddenly stricken with the knowledge of a very real problem with her current team. She shook the thought from her head, setting it aside to be dealt with later when she wasn’t in the heat of a battle. She caught the magnemite, and sent it on its way to the professor.

Once she crossed into Vermilion City’s limits, she recalled the sandshrew and hurried towards the harbor. Growing up in Pallet Town she was used to the sight of the ocean, but something about a bustling city and a proper harbor was exciting. She breathed in a deep breath of the fresh, salty ocean air and hummed happily. Already in her journey she had seen so many interesting places, but the ocean would always be one of her favorites.

Pink was pulled from her thoughts by the ringing of her phone. She pulled it from her pocket and saw that the call was from the professor. For a moment she worried that something had been wrong with the magnemite she had just sent him, but she squashed that fear down and answered him normally. Well, almost normally.

“What?! I’m trying to enjoy the harbor!” she shouted, followed by a playful giggle.

The professor sighed on the other end, although he didn’t sound exasperated. “Hello Pink.”

“Hi~” she sang, still giggling.

“I take it you’ve made it to Vermilion City?”

Pink nodded and found an unoccupied bench to sit down on. “Yep! I just made it a little bit ago. I haven’t even stopped by the Pokemon Center yet. What’s up?”

“Your father wanted to know where you were or where you’d be for the next couple of days.”

“Well, until I beat…what’s his name? Lt. Surge? Until I beat him and get the badge I’ll be here. That’s probably going to take a few days. Zacherie, he’s my sandshrew, could use a little more training first.”

“Alright, I’ll tell him that.”

“Why does he want to know?”

She could hear the professor chuckle softly on the other end. “He’s curious.”

Pink frowned. “I’m sure he is, but it sounds like he has another reason. What is it?”

“Sorry, only your dad can answer that.”

“Aw, c’mon! Tell me!” she whined.

“Nope! If you want to know, call him yourself.”

The girl bit her lip, fighting back the urge to tell him that that was just playing dirty. Instead she let out a huff. “Okay, if you won’t tell me, then I won’t tell you about shiny pokemon yet!” she declared.

“Ouch! That’s a low blow, but trying to bribe me won’t work, Squirt.”

Pink grumbled. “Fine! Be that way!” she yelled and hung up on him. She hadn’t meant it to be rude, not really. There had been plenty of times in the past where one of them would hang up that way, so they both knew it was all in jest. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what her father was planning that he would have the professor contact her. That question would bother her the rest of the day, she was sure of it! With another huff she got up from the bench and sought out the Pokemon Center.

Once she had turned all of her team over to the nurse and had taken a seat near a window so that she could look out at the ocean, Pink finally allowed another worry of hers to come to the forefront of her mind. It was what she had noticed while battling the magnemite. Despite Zacherie’s immunity to electric attacks, Pink’s team lacked a way to actually deal with the type itself. The first ground type move the sandshrew would learn was at level twenty-seven, which was much, _much_ higher than Lt. Surge’s team would surely be for a third badge battle. Not to mention Sand Tomb was not a particularly useful attack when trying to quickly deal super effective damage to a foe.

The rest of her team wasn’t looking too much better. Sonic was going to be mostly useless due to his typing. Pixy could probably stand to participate in a round, since she could tank special attacks decently well. Junior might be able to do something, too, with Slam…but Pink didn’t like leaving things up to little more than hope. She wanted a _plan_ , and currently she was without one.

When she retrieved her team, she briefly considered what options she had open to her. Not that far outside of the city was a long, long tunnel that connected all the way to Pewter City. It was inhabited by the many diglett and dugtrio that had dug it out over the years, and was a popular spot for trainers to outfit their parties better for a battle against the electric-using gym leader. Pink didn’t particularly like the idea of doing things that way. She could certainly capture a diglett and use its signature attack to wreck Lt. Surge’s team, but that felt like cheating. From the beginning she had planned to use Zacherie for the battle that awaited her, and to replace him at the last moment was not something she wanted to do.

All the same, she decided that it would be beneficial to capture one of the tiny pokemon anyway. Both because she did not yet have one, and also because it left the option of using it open to her even if she didn’t like it. So with that thought in mind she proceeded for Route 11 and Diglett’s Cave. It didn’t take her more than ten minutes to find what she was after, and the diglett was easy enough to capture. She kept it on her person, but didn’t nickname it just in case.

Still feeling conflicted, she stepped back out onto Route 11 in order to get a little more battling in before calling it a day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What will Pink do about Lt. Surge? And why does her father want to know where she is?
> 
> Also, I am well aware that by game logic a trainer with eight badges should not have a problem with a pokemon they got in a trade. HOWEVER! As I have said previously I do want to mix in some elements from other canons. And what pokemon is more notorious for disobeying than a charizard?!
> 
> TEAM INFO!  
> \- Pixy the clefairy is level 25 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Wake-Up Slap. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard  
> \- Junior the pikachu is level 24 with Thundershock, Slam, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> \- Sonic the golbat is level 22 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
> \- Zacherie the sandshrew is level 20 with Scratch, Defense Curl, Swift, and Poison Sting. Nature: Adamant, Ability: Sand Veil  
> \- Diglett the diglett is level 19 with Dig, Magnitude, Growl, and Scratch


	13. Climbing in Levels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink's time out on Route 11 proves to be very fruitful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay! Stuff happened and I wasn't able to focus on this chapter until after my original work got posted...which just happened to be the day before this was due.

Battling on Route 11 proved quite fruitful for Pink. With just a couple of hours put into it, she had not only captured a drowzee, but Pixy had also grown by two levels. Pink fully intended to give both Junior and Zacherie some time as well, along with perhaps the diglett. But night was upon her and she called it a night. The following day, however, she was completely ready to spend all day doing nothing but battling.

“So Junior, you ready to do some battling for me?” She asked the pikachu riding on her shoulder.

“Pika!” he shouted with excitement.

Pink giggled and patted his head. “Good boy!”

She had barely taken a step onto Route 11 when a girl about her age called out to her.

“Hey! You there, with the cute pikachu!” she shouted, waving Pink down. The two approached each other and the girl smiled up at Pink. “I want to battle as many electric types as possible before trying to battle the gym. Would you help me out?”

Pink blinked, taken a little off guard. That was exactly the sort of thing she would normally ask of somebody else. She had never expected for somebody else to have the same request of her. A battle was a battle, but more than that Pink had a question of her own to ask.

“Sure! I don’t mind. But, why not battle gym trainers instead?”

The girl looked surprised. “Huh? You mean you don’t know?” Pink shook her head. “Lt. Surge has this weird puzzle in his gym. There are some trainers in there, but they’re all his friends and they’re pretty tough. So there isn’t really anyone to practice with.”

Well that was certainly unusual, although not unheard of. Pink tucked that information away and set to battle the trainer one-on-one. The girl had a paras, and Pink suddenly understood why she wanted to battle. If a grass type was to be her main pokemon in her gym battle to come she had a defensive advantage but not an offensive one.

They both started the battle as strategically as possible. Junior used Nasty Plot to buff himself, and the paras used Stun Spore to slow him down. Despite being slowed and having a poor speed nature, Junior still remained faster, and Pink decided to go about the battle the way she knew her opponent expected: a Thundershock. The paras wasn’t hurt all too badly, and succeeded in Leech Seeding Junior. A good portion of the damage Junior had just dealt was regained as a result. Pink then switched up to having Junior use Slam, and the paras finally went on the offensive with scratch.

The two pokemon were pretty evenly matched, all things considered. Especially with Junior being as impeded as he was. Despite that, Pink’s Pikachu just barely pulled through if only due to level. The trainer muttered something about electric types being even faster than she had expected, but thanked Pink for the battle. After she paid up what was owed and left, Pink used a couple of potions and a parlyz heal on Junior and resumed her hunt for battles. A couple of battles later and Junior had risen high enough in level to learn Thunderbolt. Pink wasted not even a second to tell him to forget Thundershock so as to learn the new attack. With his new attack, she switched him out for the one she hoped would be her star player; Zacherie.

At the turn of his next level, Zacherie had a new attack that he could learn, too. Pink determined that Rollout would be much more useful to him than Poison Sting, especially when combined with Defense Curl. But more than that, at his very next level Zacherie began to glow and evolve. Pink cheered joyously, having hoped he would evolve before they went anywhere near the gym. She knelt down and hugged her sandslash tightly, and he carefully wrapped his clawed hands around her in return. Along with his evolution, he had yet another new move that Pink quickly swapped for Scratch; Crush Claw. With Zacherie’s new “enhancements” under his belt, Pink sought out a trainer for yet another battle. Any trainer.

The one she found had a couple of fire types, but was willing to battle despite the type disadvantage. Both the charmeleon and the growlithe stood no chance against Zacherie’s evolution and two new moves. Her easy victories lifted Pink’s spirits. She was beginning to think she might be able to defeat Lt. Surge even without her diglett’s help. High on these thoughts, she charged forward for yet more battles.

*****

A few levels after Zacherie’s evolution and Pink decided to call it a day. It was still mid-afternoon, but her team had grown quite a lot and deserved a rest. She stopped into the Poke Mart to resupply on her way back into the city. Pink was delighted to see that they carried more of her team’s favorite berries, and so she bought up a whole bunch of them. In addition, she picked up five special little pots so that she could start to grow her own. She took a moment to get one of each of the five basic flavored berries planted and watered before resuming her trip to the Pokemon Center.

She was a little more than a block away from it when her phone rang. Pink stared at the screen, not expecting to get a call from the professor again so soon. She answered.

“Aw, do you miss me so much that you had to call again?” she teased.

“I wanted to scold you for hanging up on me last time!” the professor corrected.

Pink blew a raspberry. “You’re not my dad!”

“No, but if I tell him you’ve been acting like a brat he’ll still punish you.”

“I’m not a brat!”

“You’re right; you’re a squirt!”

There was a second’s pause before Pink began to giggle. “So what’s up? Why _are_ you calling me again?”

“Your dad said that there should be something waiting for you in the Pokemon Center. I wanted to make sure you picked it up. Check in with the nurse, alright?”

“The Center? Hang on, I’m just about there.” Pink replied, curiosity making her pick up the pace a little. She made it to the Pokemon Center’s front doors in less than a minute and went inside. Still on the phone, she got the nurse’s attention. Pink lowered her phone from her ear while she spoke to the woman. “Hi! I’d like to drop off my pokemon to be healed, and I’ve been told there should be something here for me to pick up?”

The nurse took her pokemon, and while her chansey assistant took them away for healing, she asked for Pink’s ID. The girl pulled her wallet from her pocket and showed her trainer card to the nurse. Confirming her identity, the nurse retrieved a small square package from beneath the counter. Pink thanked her and went to sit and open it.

“You still there?” she asked the professor over her phone.

“I am.”

“I got it! Should I open it now?”

“If you’d like. I’m curious what it was he got you, too.”

With that the girl tucked her phone against her shoulder so that she could use both of her hands. The package opened fairly easily and she nearly shrieked when she saw what it was.

“Oh my gosh!” She shouted, slapping a hand over her mouth and casting an apologetic look at the few other people in the Center. “This is an Earthquake TM!” she whisper-shouted to the professor.

“Really?” he asked, sounding as surprised as she was. “Sounds like your dad is trying to help you out!”

“Sure seems like it.” Pink stated quietly, looking over the TM with shimmering eyes. “He and I went over the team I hoped to build a lot, so he probably saw the same problem I did. I don’t have any moves that are good against electric types, you see.”

The professor laughed. “Be sure to thank him properly the next time you two talk.”

“I will! In the meantime, tell him ‘thank you’ for me.”

“Can do. Now then, I should be getting back to work so-”

“Hold on, I want to transfer a pokemon to you.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Just a second…”

Pink tucked the TM away and hopped back onto her feet. With a little fiddling she got everything set up with the machine. She explained the situation behind her diglett to the professor and sent it on its way. Once he confirmed that he had gotten it, they said their good-byes (with an extra “say ‘hi’ to Bubbles for me” from Pink) and hung up.

When she was all done, Pink’s team was fully healed. She tucked all of them away on her belt except for Zacherie’s. She dug the TM back out and stared at it and the ball for a long moment. Finally she chewed her bottom lip and put them both back where they belonged. She thanked the nurse again and left the Pokemon Center. She knew she wouldn’t be able to face the gym leader just yet, but at the very least she wanted to assess what this “puzzle” was she had heard about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are ya'll ready for the Vermilion City Gym?!
> 
> \- Pixy the clefairy is level 27 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Wake-Up Slap. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard   
> \- Junior the pikachu is level 26 with Thunderbolt, Slam, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> \- Sonic the golbat is level 22 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
> \- Zacherie the sandslash is level 24 with Crush Claw, Defense Curl, Swift, and Rollout. Nature: Adamant, Ability: Sand Veil


	14. Vermilion City Gym

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Pink to go up against Kanto's electric type gym!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies in advance for any errors. This was done in a rush to get it out on time!

“You know, when I was told there was a puzzle in this gym I still didn’t quite understand why that would stop there from being the usual crowd of gym trainers.” Pink mumbled aloud. “But standing here now, it’s all too obvious. Whose bright idea was it to put electric fences in a gym?!”

As it happened, Vermilion City Gym’s puzzle involved turning on and off various parts of an electric fence in order to proceed towards the gym leader. Through the metal bars of the fence, Pink could make out three men stationed throughout the room to act as additional obstacles. A part of Pink was happy that through them she would get experience against electric types, but another part of her wondered why they were necessary when the gym puzzle was already ridiculous. With a sigh she turned on her heel and left the building.

When morning came around she made the trek back to the gym. Because of the puzzle, she assumed the task of making it to Lt. Surge would take up the better part of her day. Thankfully once she was actually within the main part of the gym and in the midst of the electric fences all it took was a moment to assess her surroundings and she figured out that the place was actually pretty linear in its design. The floor panels that controlled the fences weren’t out to trip her up so much as they were set up to guide her around the gym in one singular way so that she would have to battle each of the trainers within in. Suddenly the reason for them in addition to the puzzle made more sense.

Despite not having a move that was super effective against electric types, Pink’s team was plenty strong enough to make fighting the trainers fairly simple. Junior and Zacherie did most of the work and even gained a level apiece in the process. Only once was Pixy needed in order to finish off a foe.

After taking on and defeating all three trainers, she asked one of them if she would have to fight them again if she left and came back. The man assured her that if she returned that same day that she would not. Pink thanked him and made for the exit so that she could heal up at the Pokemon Center. While she navigated her way back out of the maze of electric fences, she couldn’t help but feel a little happy that she hadn’t bothered to do more than get a look at the puzzle the night before. She couldn’t imagine losing the progress she had just made.

Once her pokemon were safely in the nurse’s care, Pink sat down on a sofa by herself. With a little sigh she dug into her bag for a granola bar to munch on. Her fingers brushed across the TM, and after a moment of contemplation she withdrew it along with her snack. Earthquake…the most powerful ground type attack, and one that would complement Zacherie’s stats nicely. It really was no wonder her father had sent it to her, and she was incredibly grateful to him for it. But…something didn’t feel right. Pink couldn’t shake the feeling that she hadn’t _earned_ it. Winning against two gyms was something just about anybody with half a brain a could do, so despite being happy over her victories thus far she couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps using the TM would give her an unfair advantage. She sighed again. She’d already sent her diglett away. Whether she used the TM or not, she wasn’t going to use more than the pokemon she had on hand. She had to think of a good way to battle the gym leader, and fast.

Sure enough, she barely got enough time to contemplate her strategy before the nurse called her to pick up her pokemon. Pink thanked her and left the building, once more making her way across the city to the gym. She tried to delay things a little, walking slowly in order to give herself time to think over her options. No matter what, all she could think was that brute force would have to do the trick. The closest thing to a strategy she could come up with was to use Sing and Wake-Up Slap against a magnemite or magneton. All other electric types didn’t have a weakness she could exploit.

Despite her attempt to go slow, Pink found herself facing the officiator for Vermilion City Gym before she knew it. Pink gave him her information and he notified Lt. Surge, who was waiting just on the other side of yet another fence. The gym leader selected his team for a third badge challenge and then came forward to do battle with her. Pink barely caught any of what he spoke to her before the match, only fgrasping that they were basic rules and that it was to be a three-on-three battle like she had been expecting. She took her place on the challenger’s side of the arena and the officiator started the match.

Lt. Surge’s first pokemon into battle was an elekid. Pink had decided on her walk over to lead with Junior. The elekid was unsurprisingly fast, just managing a speed tie with Junior. Both pokemon being electric type, the pair started things off trying to give themselves a leg up. Junior used Thunder Wave, while Lt. Surge and elekid went with Leer. After that it mostly came down to trading blows with Slam and Swift. Being notably higher lever and faster with the effects of paralysis, Junior managed to bring down the elekid. Lt. Surge was quick to swap it out for a magnemite, something Junior was at a great disadvantage to.

Pink had two options: leave Junior in and let him be knocked out in a turn or two, or switch him for Pixy. She decided to leave him, thinking that she didn’t want to give her foe any free turns. Junior was barely able to damage the magnemite with either Slam or Thunderbolt, and was unfortunately brought down by two Sonicbooms. Pixy was of course the next to be put out on the field.

Despite the magnemite’s slow speed for an electric type, it still managed to be faster than Pixy. It paralyzed her with Thunder Wave, slowing her down even more. Pink couldn’t help but feel a little lucky. Pixy had Magic Guard, meaning she wouldn’t actually suffer from full paralysis. The gym leader had practically wasted his turn! Pixy’s first Sing failed to put the magnemite to sleep and she had to take one of its Sonicbooms, but the second attempt worked beautifully. Quickly doing the math in her head, Pink instructed her pokemon to use Magical Leaf twice in order to chip away at the opponent’s health. Due to the great distance in their levels, it did a remarkable amount of damage. Pink finished off the magnemite the way she had suspected she would: with a Wake-Up Slap.

Once more Pink elected to keep her pokemon in when Lt. Surge switched to his last pokemon: a raichu. Pink couldn’t help but feel a little envious. She couldn’t wait for the day she would be able to evolve Junior…and Pixy too, come to think of it. Unsurprisingly the raichu was fast and strong, and despite being just a tiny bit below Pixy in levels it knocked her out with only a few Thunderbolts. It had taken only a marginal amount of damage from Magical Leaf. With a deep breath, Pink put all of her faith into Zacherie.

Lt. Surge wasn’t stupid. Even though sandslash were not likely to have a useful ground type attack, he started things out with a Double Team. Pink couldn’t help the sudden thundering of her heart. Double Team…against any other pokemon on her team that would have been a problem, but Zacherie had Swift. She decided not to use it right away, instead going with Defense Curl to brace him for the inevitable tirade of Slams or Quick Attacks that was to come. Sure enough, the raichu began to Quick Attack after boosting its evasion. Zacherie took the attacks well, and retaliated with Crush Claw. The first strike landed, doing a great amount of damage from a critical. Not liking that Pink could still hit him, Lt. Surge commanded another Double Team, and Pink of course had her own pokemon switch to using Swift. The raichu’s health dropped to almost nothing, and both trainers knew the battle was over even before Zacherie could do his last attack.

Pink was trembling as she watched the raichu faint. A wide grin broke out on her face and she shrieked with joy. Zacherie staggered a little, but happily hugged his trainer when she ran up to him and dropped to her knees in order to throw her arms around him. She couldn’t have been more proud of him for performing so well even without a ground type attack, and she told him as such. Lt. Surge came forward with her reward and similar feelings as to how well her pokemon had fought, including the rest of her team. Pink knew he was right, and she promised she would thank her pikachu and her clefairy properly after they were healed.

With her new Thunderbadge in hand, Pink practically skipped back to the Pokemon Center.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TEAM STATS:  
> Pixy the clefairy is level 27 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Wake-Up Slap. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard  
> Junior the pikachu is level 27 with Thunderbolt, Slam, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> Sonic the golbat is level 22 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
> Zacherie the sandslash is level 25 with Crush Claw, Defense Curl, Swift, and Rollout. Nature: Adamant, Ability: Sand Veil
> 
> Poor Sonic there is falling behind! D8 But don't worry, he'll catch up soon. =3


	15. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pink returns to Cerulean City, as she plans to go through Rock Tunnel in order to reach her next destination. Doing so, she happens to meet up with some familiar faces once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly thought this chapter was going to be a bit longer. Buuut as it turns out I kind of struggled to reach my minimum word count. Sorry if some of the pacing feels off because of that.

After her victory at the Vermilion City Gym, Pink had decided to take a break for the rest of the day and the one after. She spent her time restocking her supplies, both pokemon-related and otherwise. She even found a little park where she let her team run about and play freely with other trainers’ pokemon for a while. The time off worked wonders for her sore legs and feet and of course helped to raise the spirits of her and her team. She very nearly felt like a million bucks when she finally got back on the road.

Pink’s next destination was Lavender Town, which would normally not be a long journey from Vermilion City. However, due to the route she had decided to take she instead had to backtrack all the way to Cerulean City. After that she planned to head through the Rock Tunnel in order to reach her destination. As such she spent the better part of two days walking back to the city where she had won her second badge.

She hadn’t encountered too many battles along the way, but that didn’t keep her from wanting to stop in at the Pokemon Center to heal up and rest for the night. Pink pulled open the door and stepped inside, and the first thing that caught her eye nearly made her shriek. Sitting in a corner and minding their own business were none other than Rachele and Michele. The girl hurried to turn her team over to the nurse before she approached the familiar pair.

“Who would’ve thought I’d run into you two again.” She stated.

Both teenagers raised their heads, both looking equally as surprised as Pink had been that they were in the same place at the same time.

“This _is_ a surprise.” Michele replied. “Good evening, Pink.”

“Hello again!” Rachele giggled.

“Hi. Mind if I sit with you two?” Pink asked.

As if on cue, Michele’s espeon stretched and climbed onto her lap from his spot between the two trainers, which allowed Rachele to move over and open up the rest of the sofa for the girl to sit down. Pink took the seat with a soft “thank you”, part of her feeling glad to be sitting closer to Rachele than Michele.

“So um…what brings you two here?” the girl asked. “Shouldn’t a gym leader be at their gym?”

Michele waved off her statement. “My mother is watching the place for me. It isn’t uncommon for a gym to have more than one leader, actually. As for why we’re here, well…” she let out a huff. “There’ve been reports of something strange happening at Rock Tunnel. Unusual sounds and the like. The police won’t get involved over something like that, so it’s basically up to us gym leaders to investigate if we want to something to be done about it. I volunteered to look into it, since Misty has been busy and Lavender Town lacks a gym, and Rachele is tagging along. So now it’s your turn: what are you doing back here?”

“Ooh, yeah, that makes sense.” Pink stated. She smiled a little as she gave her own explanation. “I’m following a special path on my travels. So I was actually headed for Rock Tunnel myself.”

Rachele let out a little gasp of excitement. “Then why don’t the three of us group up? I’m sure that Michele and I can handle ourselves if anything bad were to happen, but I’d feel terrible if you went on ahead of us and whatever this thing is that’s been reported turns out to cause you trouble.”

“We could just go ahead of her…” the shorter teen muttered.

“That wouldn’t be nearly as fun. The more the merrier, after all.” Rachele dismissed.

Michele rolled her eyes, but offered nothing more as a retort. Assuming that meant Pink was allowed to give her opinion on the matter, the girl flashed them both a grin.

“I’d love to! Besides, I want to see how the both of you battle, if I can. Watching more experienced trainers is sure to teach me _something_ useful. Oh, but, if I’m going with you then you might not get there as fast. I still have a lot of training up to do.”

“That’s fine.” Michele stated, catching Pink off guard. “It isn’t like this is a huge, pressing issue. Just some reports that there have been unusual noises coming from the deeper, more remote parts of the cave. Chances are it is just some rowdy pokemon not getting along for whatever reason.”

A thought struck Pink just then. “So you don’t think it could be Team Rocket planning something?”

Both teenagers shook their heads.

“I don’t believe Team Rocket would be so noisy if they were.” Michele replied, an almost definitive tone to her voice. “That aside, I also choose to come this way instead of up through Lavender Town because I wanted to check out a few things on Route 9.”

“In other words, Michele just wants an excuse to be out of the gym for as long as possible.” Rachele giggled, earning her a dirty look from her friend.

Pink couldn’t help but laugh too. “Well, not that it’s any of my business, really. But I look forward to traveling with you two!”

The girl received a similar sentiment back from Rachele, and a rather noncommittal grunt from the shorter teen. That night the three of them stayed at the Pokemon Center together, and Pink introduced her team to both teenagers properly. Pixy and Junior both practically begged Rachele to let them play with Ember and Kitsune, so the blind trainer obliged them. A little to Pink’s surprise, the espeon that belonged to Michele chose to lay on her lap than to sit and chat with the other pokemon. She assumed that he was much like Michele; preferring to remain passive and quiet and to himself. He did, however, allow Pink to give him a few pets and a head scratch.

*****

Route 9 offered Pink no new pokemon, but a whole slew of trainers ready and raring to battle. Pink found this fortunate, as Sonic had fallen behind in levels compared to the rest of her team. Throughout the first day of the three’s traveling together, Pink managed to get him up four levels. After the third, at level twenty-five, was when he evolved. To her delight, the first trainer she came across after his evolution was a hiker with two machops and a machoke. Sonic swept through all three of them with ease, taking them out with Wing Attack before they had even gotten a chance to attack. At his flawless victory, Pink threw her arms around him tightly, pride welling up in her heart.

“I just knew you’d be a real beast when you evolved!” she cried out happily. “I almost feel like I’m going to be cheating my way through the next gym!”

“Pink, if I may…” Michele began, catching the girl’s attention. “I’m going to assume from that statement that Celadon City is where you are headed next. Correct?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“I have another question for you: what is your plan for battling that gym leader?”

Pink blinked a few times and recalled her pokemon to his ball. “Um… I dunno? Sonic’s really fast and grass types tend to be slow. Plus he’s immune to poisoning. I was thinking I could just sweep right through the next gym. And if push comes to shove, I’m sure the Celadon Department Store has a Flamethrower TM or something that I could teach Pixy.”

“In other words, your only strategy is to use a type advantage.”

“Pretty much. Is that a problem?”

“Not in and of itself, no.” Michele admitted but shook her head. “However… Grass types often have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. I wouldn’t underestimate a gym leader who is very well adept at using them.”

Confused, Pink decided to put the warning away to think on later. Another trainer had come by and was obviously waiting for a battle, so the girl went to take care of that. While she did, Rachele decided to tease and to interrogate her friend quietly.

“I thought mind reading and telekinesis were more your things. I didn’t know you could use foresight.”

“I didn’t.” Michele replied bluntly. “I simply noticed something while watching her and got a funny feeling. I’d sooner call it intuition than foresight.”

“Really? What did you notice?”

“I believe she’s lacking experience with something. I could be very wrong about this and everything could easily turn out just as well as she expects it too. But I have this funny feeling that she is going to fail because of that lack of experience.”

“How so? Her plan sounded just fine to me. Grass types aren’t all too difficult to battle if you just exploit their weaknesses, of which they have a lot. Plus like she said, Sonic should be faster than them.”

“I understand that. However it is like I said: there is something she lacks experience with, and one day that may come back to bite her. I am almost certain it will. I cannot say for sure that it will happen against the Celadon City Gym Leader, but there will come a day.” The psychic trainer shook her head again and sighed. “Forget it. Forget I said anything. I don’t have foresight, like you said, so what do I know?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANNOUNCEMENT: next month is NaNoWriMo! This means there will not be any updates to this fic until December 1st, or even December 21st if I feel that I need to take time to recover.
> 
> Pink's team's stats~  
>  \- Pixy the clefairy is level 27 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Wake-Up Slap. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard   
>  \- Junior the pikachu is level 27 with Thunderbolt, Slam, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
>  \- Sonic the crobat is level 26 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
>  \- Zacherie the sandslash is level 25 with Crush Claw, Defense Curl, Swift, and Rollout. Nature: Adamant, Ability: Sand Veil


	16. Fighting Types

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Route 10 doesn't have a whole lot to offer, but that doesn't mean it can't still be exciting. Especially for somebody who is enthusiastic about certain pokemon...like Pink!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOO sorry for the long delay! My initial attempt to write this chapter was absolutely awful. I had to give myself a couple days to think over what to do, and then salvaged what I could and fixed everything up. Believe me, it is SO MUCH better now!

Where Route 9 offered trainer battles, Route 10 had some new pokemon for Pink to pick up. The stretch of road before Rock Tunnel was very small, and on some levels Pink had to wonder why the three pokemon she knew of only occupied that area and not the one before it. Still, she told the two teenagers about her plans and then began to hunt down the new pokemon.

Twenty minutes into her search, Pink had only been able to find a voltorb. Getting a little bored, she wandered back over to where Michele and Rachele had decided to wait for her in order to take a quick rest. At the same time, a trainer exited the cave. He spotted the three of them and happily jogged over, calling out as he got closer.

“Hey! Sorry about this, but could I trouble one of you for a battle?” he asked. “I’ve been trying to train in this area, but no one’s been around…”

Michele quirked an eyebrow. “It wouldn’t happen to be because of the noises in the cave, would it?”

“Yeah, actually. You know about that?” the three girls gave him a nod. “I don’t blame you. Pretty scary stuff in there, if I’m honest. It sounds like somebody’s moaning or something… Being so close to Lavender Town, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a ghost in there! I think most people have tried to leave the place by now. Although I kind of wonder if it’s just a pokemon down there trying to mess with all of us. At least, I sure hope it is… It’s less scary that way.” He gave a shrug. “Anyway, how about that battle?”

“How many badges do you have?” Pink asked immediately.

“Badges? Uh…” he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m not…really into the whole badge-collecting thing. I prefer exploring caves and such. I just like battling from time to time.”

“Uh…okay… What levels are your pokemon, then?”

“I think the highest is something like fifty-six, and the lowest is forty-nine. I’ve only got three of ‘em.”

Pink grimaced. The trainer was a teenager, perhaps older than Michele and Rachele, so she had been expecting higher level pokemon, but she had still been hoping she might be able to stand a chance… Michele stared at him, eyeing him up briefly before stepping forward a little.

“I’ll battle you.” She stated calmly.

“Thank you so much!” the trainer cried out happily.

The two put some distance between them, with Pink and Rachele standing off to one side in order to watch…or in Rachele’s case, listen. The other trainer started things off by sending out a poliwrath. Michele barely contained a smirk as she motioned for Espeon to take the field.

“Oh crud…” the trainer muttered. “I was hoping that thing belonged to somebody else. I like fighting types, you see.” He breathed a heavy sigh. “Well, this isn’t going to go well.”

Espeon of course got the first move, hitting the poliwrath hard with a Psybeam. The poliwrath barely managed to hang on, and returned with a Body Slam. With Espeon’s low defenses, he took a good amount of damage. Still, he was able to knockout the poliwrath with a second Psybeam, which everyone saw coming. The next pokemon to be released onto the field was a machamp.

Upon seeing the trainer’s second pokemon, Pink could help but cry out in delight. The trainer gave her a little smile, glad to see somebody else had an appreciation for one of his favorite pokemon. Michele hit it with another Psybeam, landing a critical hit of all things. Both the trainer and Pink whined at the quick defeat.

“By the way, you’re a psychic trainer, aren’t you?” he asked Michele as he reached for his last pokemon.

“I am.” She replied calmly.

“Had a feeling that’d be the case. Well then. Good thing I visited Johto recently so I could pick up _this_ guy!”

With a confident smirk, he released his last pokemon: a heracross. Pink’s shriek was shrill enough that Rachele winced and had to cover her ears. She even took a step away from the younger girl! Pink began to mutter, “oh my gosh” over and over, bouncing on her toes with excitement and hearts in her eyes.

The trainer grinned smugly at Michele, who surprisingly enough appeared to be a little perturbed. Espeon set up a Future Sight, and was promptly knocked out of the running by a Bug Bite. The trainer watched in anticipation as Michele carefully thought over her options and Rachele hurried out to retrieve their fallen friend. Finally, her hand moved to her waist and a pokeball levitated up into her hand.

“He is formidable, I’ll give him that.” Michele remarked on the heracross. “But you really shouldn’t underestimate you’re opponent.” With a flick of her wrist, the pokeball was tossed onto the field. A little smile tugged at her lips as she released her second pokemon. “Show ‘em what you’ve got, Papa.” She said calmly.

Both the trainer and Pink gaped at the gengar that was released. Without being told a single thing, it locked its eyes on the heracross and began to attack. Despite its apparent bulk, it was much faster than the heracross and managed to burn it with Will-o-wisp. Once again, the opponent used Bug Bite, which did hardly anything to the gengar. The heracross took the Future Sight attack after the next turn, dropping its health a good amount. What amazed the three girls, however, was that Bug Bite was the only move it was ever ordered to use, and as a result Michele was able to beat it with only a Shadow Ball, the Future Sight, and a Thunderbolt.

In the end, the other trainer had to admit defeat.

“Well…that’ll teach me to have three fighting-type attacks on a single pokemon…” he muttered as he recalled his pokemon. “But that was pretty cool! I wasn’t expecting a gengar to know Thunderbolt, of all things! I’m going to have to go to Celadon City one of these days and see if I can teach Herold anything new…” with that said, he reached for his wallet.

Michele raised a hand to stop him. “Don’t bother. I’m not in this for the money. Consider your information about Rock Tunnel to be payment enough.”

Confused, the trainer gave up on his attempt to hand over prize money. When he left for the nearby Pokemon Center to heal his party back up, Pink let out an excited squeal. Rachele and Michele turned their attention to her in surprise.

“UGH! I want a machamp _so_ _badly_!” she shouted. “Did you see his?! It was _so cool_! Oh man, and heracross too! They’re both so good! Seeing them in battle’s got me all inspired! Okay, that’s it, back to hunting!”

Without another word, she ran back into the tall grass. She spooked a small flock of spearow in the process, and the lot of them flew away in fright. The two teenagers only sighed and resumed their waiting. Some minutes later, the young trainer let out a whoop of joy as she had finally found the pokemon she had been frantically searching for.

It was machop. With her pokemon having eight to ten levels on it, Pink had to be careful in damaging it. Junior paralyzed it with Thunder Wave, and Sonic chipped away at its health with Bite. Once the machop’s health was down low enough, Pink chucked a great ball at it, wanting to catch the thing as quickly as possible. One was all it took, and she cried out with joy as she snatched it up.

“And now I’ve finally gotten my chance to get one of those cool pokemon!” she shouted, nuzzling the ball happily. “Oh man, I cannot _wait_ for this thing to become a machamp! She’s going to be _so good!_ ”

Michele only breathed a sigh, and Rachele giggled beside her. Despite having the new pokemon that she wanted, Pink stayed out in the grass just long enough to pick up a magnemite to add to her ever-growing collection of things that she had sent to the professor. When she joined back up with the two teenagers, she was deep in thought.

“Coming up with a nickname?” Rachele inquired.

“Yeah…” Pink replied. “She’s a girl, so I’m thinking Hiyoko.”

“Hiyoko?”

“Yeah! ‘Cause one day she’s gonna be my big, buff girl who can punch a moving tank and win!”

Neither teenager understood what she was talking about, so instead they just went along with it. The trio made their way towards the Pokemon Center. It was getting to be late and Pink’s team, as well as Espeon and Papa the gengar, needed to be healed up. The trainer who had battled Michele left the Center just as they arrived, and he gave them a little wave before going back to Rock Tunnel.

The three of them handed over the pokemon that needed healing, and then went and found themselves a place to sit over in a corner around a little table. As they all dug through their belongings in order to find food for themselves and their pokemon, Pink thought of something.

“So…you have a gengar…” she began, glancing at Michele across the table.

“I do.”

“But you train psychic pokemon.”

“I prefer working with them, yes. And in the gym I only use psychic types. But Papa is a very special exception.”

“Why is he named Papa, if I may ask?”

Michele gave a little shrug. “He used to belong to my mother, in a way. My real father wasn’t around a whole lot, and Mom was busy with the gym. So Papa would look after me and play with me when I was little. He’s basically a second father to me.”

Pink stared at her, completely stunned. “That’s… THAT’S SO CUTE!” she shouted, drawing the attention of the others in the room. “Michele, the more I learn about you, the more I wonder why you were so scary when I first met you! First Espeon, and now Papa! Too, too _cute_!”

Rachele giggled, and Michele huffed. “If you say so…” she muttered.

“For what it’s worth, I think it’s pretty cute too.” Rachele stated.

For the first time that Pink had ever seen, Michele’s cheeks flushed. She avoided looking at either of them in frustration. “That’s enough talk of that for now.” She said dismissively.

Both of the other girls laughed, but agreed to stop. The shorter teenager might not have been as frightening as she had first appeared to Pink, but she still had a feeling that her initial fear had been warranted…and she didn’t particularly want to find out if she was right about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought it was about time that Michele got a chance to get in on the action! =D And of course, both Espeon and Papa are mid-to-high fifties in their levels.
> 
> SPEAKING OF LEVELS, here's what Pink's team is looking like! (Really though, the only thing that's changed is the addition of Hiyoko.)  
> \- Pixy the clefairy is level 27 with Pound, Sing, Magical Leaf, and Wake-Up Slap. Nature: Quiet, Ability: Magic Guard  
> \- Junior the pikachu is level 27 with Thunderbolt, Slam, Nasty Plot, and Thunder Wave. Nature: Sassy, Ability: Static  
> \- Sonic the crobat is level 26 with Wing Attack, Supersonic, Astonish, and Bite. Nature: Jolly, Ability: Inner Focus  
> \- Zacherie the sandslash is level 25 with Crush Claw, Defense Curl, Swift, and Rollout. Nature: Adamant, Ability: Sand Veil  
> \- Hiyoko the machop is level 17 with Low Kick, Karate Chop, Focus Energy, and Foresight. Nature: Lax, Ability: No Guard 
> 
> 5/6 of her party is now established. What's her last pokemon gonna be? ;) PLACE YOUR BETS!

**Author's Note:**

> This work, unlike other muti-chapter fics I have started, will actually get updated...on a SCHEDULE! In other words unless something comes up, this fic will be updated on the 1st and 21st of every month, with a minimum of 1,500 words per chapter. If you want more info on each update (such as if it is being delayed), then I suggest you go over to my tumblr, wiloshorts. I make announcements about such things there!
> 
> With that said, I'm very interested in your thoughts on this chapter. I know it is very bare bones, but I want to know if there is anything you like or anything you think I can do to improve future chapters. So leave me a comment. =D


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